Thomas O’Grady 4/14/20 Thomas O’Grady 4/14/20

The Spuds Will Bloom in Baile Beag

There’s a scene in Brian Friel’s iconic play Translations (1980) that seems to me to speak to our current moment.

Douglas Penick 4/14/20 Douglas Penick 4/14/20

A Gathering Quiet

Silence is now, for the moment anyhow, pervasive. It is a presence itself.

Tomasz Pudlocki 4/14/20 Tomasz Pudlocki 4/14/20

Unfunny April Fools’ Day in Poland

Apparently the Polish PM’s repeated mantras are not enough anymore.

Thaila Ramanujam 4/14/20 Thaila Ramanujam 4/14/20

Self-Help in the Time of Corona

No disease or infection is an “enemy” — for that very reason, we never become soldiers.

Shuchi Saraswat 4/14/20 Shuchi Saraswat 4/14/20

Coronaland

When we emerge from this great pause, how will we begin?

Tony Schwalm 4/14/20 Tony Schwalm 4/14/20

It’s Our Turn

How many N95 masks would $4.5 billion buy? Roughly 2.5 billion. The aircraft carrier sits in Guam, dead in the water.

Lloyd Schwartz 4/14/20 Lloyd Schwartz 4/14/20

A Music Critic in Quarantine

I haven’t felt much like listening to music, and it’s not because I don’t love music any more.

Huma Sheikh 4/14/20 Huma Sheikh 4/14/20

Protests Under Cover

At the moment, a virus which doesn’t distinguish Muslims or Hindus has provided me with the cover I need.

Mosab Abu Toha 4/14/20 Mosab Abu Toha 4/14/20

We Are All Gazans Now . . . Sort Of

Enforced social distancing and isolation are something my family and I have endured most of our lives.

Christie Towers 4/14/20 Christie Towers 4/14/20

Downtown Crossing, Easter 2020

1 in 3 of the unhoused population of Boston have tested positive. We offer handmade masks, hand sanitizer, symptom screening, and calls to medical teams.

Askold Melnyczuk 3/26/20 Askold Melnyczuk 3/26/20

Introduction to Volume 7

There were other things on these writers’ minds before the virus went viral.

Victoria Amelina 3/26/20 Victoria Amelina 3/26/20

Nothing Bad Has Ever Happened

The stories of the dead and the monuments commemorating them aren’t meant to end a conversation, but rather to launch one.

Thomas Sayers Ellis 3/26/20 Thomas Sayers Ellis 3/26/20

Folkcal Fraim 2

Every time you pick up a camera, you are facing another camera.

Judith Hertog 3/26/20 Judith Hertog 3/26/20

The Fog of Citizenship

Now that I am about to become an American, I wonder if I’m ready for such a commitment.

Dan Hunter 3/26/20 Dan Hunter 3/26/20

It’s Alchemy

Using algorithmic calculations to predict likely words is not writing.

Megan Marshall 3/26/20 Megan Marshall 3/26/20

Place of Rest

I walk to the Mt. Auburn cemetery often to visit our plot, finding new and old friends among the dead.

Ruth Mukwana 3/26/20 Ruth Mukwana 3/26/20

I Bite My Tongue

I’d like to tell my 8 year old daughter that for some children, schools are their only protection.

John Wronoski 3/26/20 John Wronoski 3/26/20

The Same Thing, Only Different

We are perfectly free to think as long as we keep our thoughts to ourselves . . . and make sure they cannot escape.

Chibuihe Obi Achimba 1/14/20 Chibuihe Obi Achimba 1/14/20

The History Nigeria is Fighting to Erase

I belong to the generation unable to study an expurgated history of Nigeria.

Philip G. Alcabes 1/14/20 Philip G. Alcabes 1/14/20

Susan Sontag: Out and In

Sontag wasn't drawn to write about AIDS because she was (sometimes) homosexual, but because she had been thinking about the ways disease, including her own, is talked about.