AGNI 54
Contents
Editor's Note
Fiction
Aral
by Tom Bissell
Essays
Good People in Times of Evil
Translated from the BCMS by Zorica Stoilović and Ellen Elias-Bursać
“We Know Nothing. It Isn’t Taught”: Secret Histories of Argentina’s Dirty War
On Nonviolence and Literature
Premature Witness
Arthur Koestler in Civil War Spain
...and justice for all
by Ilan Stavans
Poetry
The Two Mice (transfused from the Scots of Robert Henryson [1420-1505] by Seamus Heaney)
by Aesop
Translated by Seamus Heaney
Eidetica
Turn About Is Fair
Two Secretaries of State Require Heart Surgery
Pure Music
by Teresa Cader
Earthquake
by James Galvin
Guest
The Semiotics of a Truck Overturned in Fog
The Trail
William Remembers the Outbreak of Civil War 1983
by Maxine Kumin
A Cut
The Face Also Has Bruised Dignity
by Bei Ling
Translated from the Chinese by Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone, and Xi Chuan
The Sun Singers
by Bei Ling
Translated from the Chinese by Tony Barnstone, Willis Barnstone, and Xi Chuan
Burning Song
by Glyn Maxwell
Love-Letters for Cell Ten
by Glyn Maxwell
The Fair That Always Comes
by Glyn Maxwell
The Flood Towns
by Glyn Maxwell
The Headline
A Few Words on the Soul
Translated from the Polish by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh
What the Body Can Say
Nikos at 42
My Eyes are the Shimmering Waters
Translated from the Buryat by Sayan Zhambalov, Virlana Tkacz, and Wanda Phipps
Art Feature
Lunacy ’Toons
Conversations
Introduction to Interviews with Bei Dao and Rita Dove
Vladimir Nabokov, 1958
Reviews
An Unforeseen Destiny: Pinochet, History, and Memory
Who Owns Death?
“As the Songwriter Wrote . . .”
From New Grapes to a Complex Wine
The West and Genocide in Africa
by Edward Kissi
A World Reformed
Amnesty International Fortieth Anniversary issue. This big issue (over 400 pages) is chock full of amazing stuff, including poetry by Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska, Pulitzer Prize winners Maxine Kumin and Charles Simic, Daniel Berrigan, and Homero Aridjis; fiction by Tom Bissell and former Iranian political prisoner and torture victim Faraj Sarkohi; previously unpublished interviews with Vladimir Nabokov, Rita Dove, and Bei Dao; translation by Seamus Heaney; and first-person testimony of great acts of heroic compassion in the Balkan War recorded by Dr. Svetlana Broz, granddaughter of Marshal Tito (later reprinted in Utne Reader and in a Dutch magazine).
Editor
Askold Melnyczuk
Askold Melnyczuk
Guest Co-Editor
Joshua Rubenstein
Joshua Rubenstein
Managing Editor
Eric Grunwald
Eric Grunwald
Advisory Board
Leslie Epstein
Robert Pinsky
Derek Walcott
Leslie Epstein, Robert Pinsky, Derek Walcott
Art Editor
Gerry Bergstein
Gerry Bergstein
Music Editor
Eric Chasalow
Eric Chasalow
Fiction & Poetry Editor
Askold Melnyczuk
Askold Melnyczuk
Associate Poetry Editor
Claire Jarvis
Claire Jarvis
Associate Fiction Editor
Jennifer Joerg Blum
Jennifer Joerg Blum
Editor Emerita
Sharon Dunn
Sharon Dunn
Editorial Assistants
Brett Brehm
Katie Krell
Lauren Kruskall
Erika Nelson
Brett Brehm, Katie Krell, Lauren Kruskall, Erika Nelson
Contributing Editors
Thomas Bahr
Erin Belieu
Sven Birkerts
Lucie Brock-Broido
John J. Clayton
William Corbett
Stuart Dischell
Sharon Dunn
Thomas Sayers Ellis
Marie Howe
Diana Der-Hovanessian
Ha Jin
Alex Johnson
Susan Johnson
Fred Marchant
Fiona McCrae
Gail Mazur
Joe Osterhaus
Dzvinia Orlowsky
George Packer
Solomea Pavlychko
Liam Rector
Scott Ruescher
George Scialabba
Tom Sleigh
Sue Standing
Rosanna Warren
Oksana Zabuzhko
Thomas Bahr, Erin Belieu, Sven Birkerts, Lucie Brock-Broido, John J. Clayton, William Corbett, Stuart Dischell, Sharon Dunn, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Marie Howe, Diana Der-Hovanessian, Ha Jin, Alex Johnson, Susan Johnson, Fred Marchant, Fiona McCrae, Gail Mazur, Joe Osterhaus, Dzvinia Orlowsky, George Packer, Solomea Pavlychko, Liam Rector, Scott Ruescher, George Scialabba, Tom Sleigh, Sue Standing, Rosanna Warren, Oksana Zabuzhko