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Review of World Literature Today, March/April 2015 by

Rating: Keywords: Conventional (i.e. not experimental), Cultural focus, International,

Theme issue

International Lit Mag Focuses onDissidents, Exiles and Askingthe Hard Questions

Nichole Reber

Many people reacted a few years ago to news of the VIDA counts by eschewing the(white) male authors on their shelves and filling them instead with authors of theother gender. Today that stance has evolved. Now, especially young women, areposting articles about their year of reading non-white! or, to be lesssensationalistic, reading globally.

Yet beyond “global” authors sanctioned by American/Western publishers, authorslike Jhumpa Lahiri and Khaled Hosseini, where do we turn? A fine place to start isWords without Borders, reviewed here a little while ago. Yet there’s anotherpublication—nay, oracle— that’ll fill up your what-to-read-next card: WorldLiterature Today. Like WWB, WLT comes as a blessing for translators,international writers, and latitudinarian readers.

Founded in 1927, it’s a bimonthly magazine of international literature and culturefrom the University of Oklahoma. The print (and digital) magazine includestranslations of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, interviews, and even internationalbook suggestions on a theme (the March/April issue’s theme is infection—mental,physical, and cyber). The last section of the magazine houses a cornucopia of bookreviews, which I’ll discuss later. There are also web exclusives such as an interviewwith and some bilingual audio poems by award-winning Iranian poet/translatorMohsen Emadi, plus an excerpt from award-winning Brazilian writer FernandoMorais’s forthcoming book, The Last Soldiers of the Cold War.

WLT knocked it out of the park when it stepped beyond books and into the world offilm. In what appears to be an inaugural department called World Film, those whotake non-white to include American Natives such as Louise Erdrich, may thrill to theessay by M. Elise Marubbio, author of Killing the Indian Maiden: Images of NativeAmerican Women in Film. Native and First Nations women seem to be trapped infilm as sexualized objects, she writes. Get to know these women outside that tropeby watching them in the doc My Name Is Kahentiiost and narrative feature filmsHoney Moccasin, Older than America, and Fry Bread Babies.

Another department profiles literary cities. It’s not such a new concept, as these arealso available in WWB and LiteraryTraveler.com. Still, this particularmanifestation includes suggestions of books to buy and the bookstores to buy themat to enhance the literary travel experience. For this issue, which looks at L.A.,recommendations include a treasure trove of used and indie bookstores around thecity of cinema: Skylight Books, The Last Bookstore, and Small World Books.

Now, before continuing on with one of the best elements of the magazine, let’sconsider something. The March/April issue focuses on the literature of Iraniandissidents and exiles -- a timely subject considering recent news of Congress’controversial letter to Iranian leadership saying any deal made with PresidentObama would be all but nullified come 2016. In an essay introducing the specialfeature section, Persis Karim, who has co/edited anthologies of Iranian women and

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International Lit Mag Focuses on Dissidents, Exiles and A... http://www.thereviewreview.net/reviews/international-lit-m...

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Little Gem of a Literary Journal Shines inBig Ways2 comments • 2 months ago

AvatarTheReviewReview — Thanks for this note,Kimberly. We've just corrected our reviewto reflect this.

Your Cover Letter Does Not Matter, andOther Bits of Advice from a ContestJudge7 comments • 3 months ago

Avatarjpagemanuel — Practical and always downto earth! Thanks for sharing all this, Nina.Writing is hard work and it always requires…

The Power and Poverty in CritiqueGroups10 comments • 2 months ago

AvatarRudri Bhatt Patel — Once you find the rightfit, these groups possess the power totransform your work. My writing groupoffers support, …

Ah, Cover Letters: Do They Even ReallyMatter?1 comment • 5 months ago

AvatarWendy — Cover letters aren't my bestforum, as they are meant to be honest,professional, and full of talk about my ownaccomplishments. …

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