PEN American Center
When my husband and I started writing young adult novels 20 years ago, I never expected our biggest obstacle to be the Nervous Parent.Read More »
"If your love has died / Do not grieve / Laugh at love / And deceive with laughter / An unyielding sorrow." To be honest, we had to control ourselves hard from bursting out with laughter. At this age, what could she even have to do with love?! Read More »
She realized that living was just what it was not. That a will of its own was just what it did not have. It was dead and blind and followed the laws of the dead and the blind. Read More »
When one man died, he was replaced by another one; when that other man fell wounded, a healthy one emerged from behind him, creating an endless reserve of soldiers always venturing forward, a bloodthirsty horde shouting slogans, insults, prayers,...Read More »
Yet even in the midst of progress, history remained. Every town and city retained traces of its past: a statue; a plaque on a wall; a hitching post for horses; a dried-up well into which people dropped coins in exchange for luck. Read More »
She tells her husband this story. He asks her what she wants him to say. She tells him to say that he is angry that she fucked a Turkish sailor. She tells him to say that he wishes he had fucked her in the unairconditioned room near Galata tower....Read More »
The young man was in a bamboo cage, thrown on a muddy floor, wet with water or perhaps urine. I could hear the buzzing of the flies around him. This one turned out badly, whispered Don Tulio when he saw me beside him, but I couldn’t figure out if he...Read More »
“God is born, at different times, in different places, with different names./ He dances in heaven as Shiva, creator of universes; / He lived on earth as Buddha, human incarnation of compassion; / And as you can see, He moves within you. / Now,...Read More »
The night—which resembles a notary’s office where resigned third-rank civil servants lie snoring among the sheaves of official papers—transforms the houses and the buildings into sad family vaults inhabited by peevish couples who forget their...Read More »
It was reported that the populace and army of the City of Purple Poppy had gathered outside the city walls. Mahrukh Magic-Eye fell upon them with her entire force. Tired after a whole night of commotion and dispirited in the absence of Princess...Read More »