Spring 2010 Introduction

First off, two strong pieces of fiction from South Asia: the tactile and obsessive urban chiaroscuro of the Taiwanese master Lo Yi-chin in his story “The Body Transporter” and the crackling stylistic fun in a story about a provincial Gujarati politician in love. Then three poems, which so happen to be by three women, each a kind of ode or invocation—to a river, to a falling creature and to a clitoris.

This issue’s non-fiction section is prompted by the theme of migration and travel, historically favored by writers everywhere. Yet among the seven short pieces collected here, a couple of voices turn the table on the pleasures of distance, and a couple challenge, instead, some foundational myths of migrant lit.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti sums up the state of things in an interview with a Brazilian poet. The poet Kiki Petrosino sends a postcard from Nigeria.

Nataŝa Ďurovičová