POST
The Alignist
FOR ZADIE SMITH, THE CLOUDS HAVE ROLLED IN OVER ...

“On November 10 The New York Times reported that nearly seven in ten Republicans prefer America as it was in the 1950s,” Smith said, “A nostalgia of course entirely unavailable to a person like me, for in that period I could not vote, marry my husband, have my children, work in the university I work in, or live in my neighborhood.” 

FOR ZADIE SMITH, THE CLOUDS HAVE ROLLED IN OVER MULTICULTURALISM
Q&A
The Alignist
(3+7) (Q&A) ON LANGSTON HUGHES' SONG FOR ...

As outrage over the killings of unarmed black men by white police hours plays again rattles the nation, Langston Hughes’ poetry of protest has become only more prescient. 

(3+7) (Q&A) ON LANGSTON HUGHES' SONG FOR AMERICA, SEXUALITY, AND IMPACT ON BLACK LIVES MATTER
Q&A
The Alignist
(3+7) (Q&A) ON A FRENCH MEMOIRIST WHO BELIEVED ...

Although a new film and documentary about Violette Leduc’s life have added to her popularity in recent years, the groundbreaking writer remains largely unread outside of France. THE ALIGNIST’s Beenish Ahmed called up New York University professor Elisabeth Ladenson to talk about Leduc’s troubled life and unsung legacy -- but mostly, about her unsparing prose. 

(3+7) (Q&A) ON A FRENCH MEMOIRIST WHO BELIEVED THAT 'TO WRITE IS TO PROSTITUTE ONESELF'
The Alignist
(3+7) (Q&A) WITH NOVELIST JENNIFER CLEMENT ON ...

Jennifer Clement's latest novel, Prayers for the Stolen, maps the landscape of violence wrought on the people of Guerrero, Mexico by the drug wars and traces the story of some of its "stolen." THE ALIGNIST spoke with Clement about her response to the disappearance of 43 teaching students from the state last year and asked her how her work came to be one of social protest.

(3+7) (Q&A) WITH NOVELIST JENNIFER CLEMENT ON MEXICO'S MISSING
The Alignist
HENRY DUMAS WROTE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE KILLED BY ...

"A young black man, Henry Dumas, went through a turnstile at a New York City subway station," reads an invitation by Toni Morrison for a posthumous book-launch party she threw for Dumas in 1974, six years after he died. "A transit cop" — who was white — "shot him in the chest and killed him. Circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear. Before that happened, however, he had written some of the most beautiful, moving and profound poetry and fiction that I have ever in my life read."

HENRY DUMAS WROTE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE KILLED BY COPS. THEN HE WAS KILLED BY A COP.

SUGGESTED READING, NOVEMBER 2015 EDITION

"CHILE ADMITS PABLO NERUDA MIGHT HAVE BEEN MURDERED BY PINOCHET REGIME," BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

"MICHAEL HOUELLEBECQ'S 'SUBMISSION,'" BY KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD

"SIX FRENCH FILMS THAT SPEAK TO THE IDENTITY OF THE NATION," BY WESLEY MORRIS AND A.O. SCOTT

"A STORIED BOOKSTORES AND ITS LATE ORACLE LEAVE AN IMPRINT ON ISLAMABAD," BY ROD NORDLAND

"FELLOW POETS PROTEST SAUDI DEATH SENTENCE FACING ASHRAF FAYADH," BY ALISON FLOOD

"FROGS," BY MO YAN

"THE MYSTERY OF PRIMO LEVY," BY TIM PARKS

"FOR OBAMA, A NEW SHOPPING HAUNT: UPSHUR STREET BOOKS," BY JULIET EILPERIN

"THINGS THAT CAN AND CANNOT BE SAID," ARUNDHATI ROY IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN CUSACK

FIVE BOOKS TO REMIND YOU WHY NOTHING IS SIMPLE IN PARIS

FIVE BOOKS TO REMIND YOU WHY NOTHING IS SIMPLE IN PARIS

“Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden money, nor the moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight," Hemingway wrote in A Moveable Feast. 

(3+7) (Q&A) WITH NOVELIST JENNIFER CLEMENT ON MEXICO'S MISSING

(3+7) (Q&A) WITH NOVELIST JENNIFER CLEMENT ON MEXICO'S MISSING

Jennifer Clement's latest novel, Prayers for the Stolen, maps the landscape of violence wrought on the people of Guerrero, Mexico by the drug wars and traces the story of some of its "stolen." THE ALIGNIST spoke with Clement about her response to the disappearance of 43 teaching students from the state last year and asked her how her work came to be one of social protest.

HENRY DUMAS WROTE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE KILLED BY COPS. THEN HE WAS KILLED BY A COP.

HENRY DUMAS WROTE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE KILLED BY COPS. THEN HE WAS KILLED BY A COP.

"A young black man, Henry Dumas, went through a turnstile at a New York City subway station," reads an invitation by Toni Morrison for a posthumous book-launch party she threw for Dumas in 1974, six years after he died. "A transit cop" — who was white — "shot him in the chest and killed him. Circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear. Before that happened, however, he had written some of the most beautiful, moving and profound poetry and fiction that I have ever in my life read."

SUGGESTED READING, SEPTEMBER 2015 EDITION

SUGGESTED READING, AUGUST 2015 EDITION

SUGGESTED READING, JULY 2015 EDITION

SUGGESTED READING, JUNE 2015 EDITION

SUGGESTED READING, MAY 2015 EDITION

THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL: A GRAPHIC NOVEL ON LIFE AS A PALESTINIAN REFUGEE

THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL: A GRAPHIC NOVEL ON LIFE AS A PALESTINIAN REFUGEE

"[T]elling your stories is also a political act," the 22-year-old author of Baddawi told THE ALIGNIST. Leila Abdelrazaq began to explore her father's life because she felt that most people she encountered lacked a real understanding of what it meant to be a Palestinian refugee. 

SUGGESTED READING, APRIL 2015 EDITION