Issue 11: Voice

A note from Buku Sarkar.

In a new poem by Elizabeth Acevedo, a voice from the record player summons memories and unresolved feelings about the speaker’s father. Introduced by Margarita Engle.

A duet by Andrea Boccelli and Sarah Brightman punctuates assorted events in the life of a refugee family in Faruk Šehić’s “Women’s War.” Introduced by Aleksander Hemon.

Tope Folarin’s “The Goat” concerns a boy in a poverty-stricken family whose insatiable appetite threatens his household’s already precarious stability. Introduced by Helon Habila.

Vamika Sinha’s three poems depict speakers taking in the sensual joys of an open city, breathing air into the open mouths of dolls, and using pens filled with syrup. Introduced by Tishani Doshi.

Tiziano Colibazzi’s “Shoes” cover lots of territory: Italian footwear etiquette, Amsterdam’s Homomonument, and a Berlin pilgrimage. Introduced by Zia Jaffrey.

In two poems by Quenton Baker, nightmares fragment into law, flesh becomes lexical, and the dirt a dialect. Introduced by Ada Limón.

“The warmth that my lover left in my hands turns to ice as soon as they touch the first fish of the day”: unexpected transitions and sensations populate every paragraph of Birgül Oğuz’s “Revol.” Introduced by Victoria Holbrook.