Radicle: An Interview with Jennifer Lang
Note: This interview was conducted in May 2023. Jennifer Lang has vivid memories of mother-daughter pilgrimages to the Oakland public library when she was a child. She can hear the creak of the hardwood floor, her mom shushing her if she dared speak. She can feel her fingers touch …
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Radicle: An Interview with Dur e Aziz Amna
All my life, I’ve been known as the girl from everywhere. The evidence of this lies in my upbringing: I was born in Riyadh and have lived in Toronto, Dubai, Lahore, Boston (for a hot minute), and Memphis. I’m proud of this everywhere-ness of mine—it’s a distinguishing trait and it’s …
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Radicle: An Interview with Dur-e-Aziz Amna
Dur e Aziz Amna is from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and now lives in Newark, USA. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, and Al Jazeera, among others. She was selected as Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2022, and won the 2019 Financial Times / Bodley Head Essay …
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Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief
In Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief, a collection of 30 letters, Victoria Chang writes about intergenerational memory, silence, grief, racism, and death. Extending an approach featured in her poetry collection, OBIT (2020), she writes to both the living and the dead, as well as to concepts such …
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Radicle: An Interview with Gretchen Legler
Gretchen Legler is a teacher, a writer, a sketcher, and an avid gardener who earned a Master’s of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. When I asked about her history as a writer, she said, “I have always been one. It was a gift.” She wrote and illustrated stories as a …
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Rainbow Rainbow
In the wake of Florida’s House Bill 1557, aka the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, it is more important than ever that we share examples of queer joy. Lydia Conklin’s debut story collection Rainbow Rainbow does just that, entering boldly as a fearless exploration of the many facets of LGBTIA++ identity …
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The Use of the Brahms’ Scherzo in The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
Music can affect what words cannot. Jennifer Rosner’s debut novel, The Yellow Bird Sings (Flatiron Books, 2020), is about the remarkable bond between a mother and daughter forged during the Holocaust. It is a National Jewish Book Award finalist in two categories (Debut and Book Group), a Massachusetts Book Awards Honor …
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Radicle: An Interview with Morgan Talty
I discovered Morgan Talty’s work a few months ago when I saw his name frequently appearing on all the highly anticipated book release lists that come out at the start of each year. I bookmarked some of his stories and read each one gradually, on my dimmed phone screen during …
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The Sea and More Than the Sea: A Review of Time’s Web & The Tired Apple Tree by Ruth Moore
If I was going to throw a dinner party and could invite three writers living or dead, who would they be? Djuna Barnes, Elena Ferrante, and Ruth Moore. Or maybe Wanda Coleman, Stanley Crawford, and Ruth Moore. Or Diane Seuss, Marcel Proust, and Ruth Moore. Ruth Moore makes my list …
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Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze (1956-2021)
Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze died on August 4, 2021. Her work as a dub poet and great performer is legendary. Less so (though no less deserving) is her turn in her later writing to a number of narrative, lyrical poems that celebrated what she called “the simple things of life.” Unabashedly …
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