No Stone Unturned by Farah Abdessamad

The ecstasy that accompanies a spiritual experience holds a form of inner displacement; we are born to surpass, to embrace our totality in movement...
Read MoreCharles Rearick in Popular Paris

Paris has long been the most visited city in Europe, but most of it is not visited. Why not?
Read MoreThe room refrigerator had gained five…

I don’t mean to complain, but the thrice-daily knock-on-the-door announcing the delivery of food was no longer welcome...
Read More‘How fortunate we were to leave when we did’

I was six years old when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Overnight, Kabul was transformed from a bustling city to a silent prison yard...
Read MoreChina’s Contract

You stay quiet and we will set the course for growth, success and China's path to the top. It's a tough, unambiguous contract...
Read MoreOn Belarusian Women

Can we call it a feminist revolution in Belarus? Is it the consequence of a long-lasting tendency? Or a totally unpredictable phenomenon, even for the Belarusians?
Read More‘There were always more books than the small shelves could contain’

I grew up in the aftermath of Nasser’s Egypt, where public education was made free for all. For me, learning has always been remote…
Read MoreSikkim’s Integration/Annexation/Merger

How the change came about is a story with multiple plots involving India’s greatest spymaster, a defiant king, his ambitious political rival, and two enigmatic foreign women...
Read MoreWhere’s Ultima Thule?

To approach Smøla by boat is potentially treacherous—much of the island’s coastline is studded by thousands of rocky islets, some as small as huts, that jut from the sea like mini icebergs...
Read MoreSoaring Above the Skylark

At the summit stood a stone Shinto gate framed by chestnut trees. I climbed the worn stone steps to find an overgrown shrine filled with moss-coated sculptures—images of Buddhist deities and elderly sages in flowing robes...
Read MoreCabo Verdeans

We shared a Creole language and the open, relaxed customs, known as morabeza, that are unique to Cabo Verde; only we knew how to compose and sing morna music...
Read MoreRainbow Drive-Ins

To visit Hana, a small, remote town on the island of Maui, most people wake at the crack of dawn, hop in convertible Mustangs, and drive the 45 miles from the regional airport...
Read MoreA winsome anime North Korean leader?

The outpouring of prurient interest in Kim represents an intersection of these erotic fantasies with the potent force of Orientalism
Read MoreThe tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right...
Read MoreThe thing about new blooms is that they tend to bleed— / Those petals birthed / hugging close / that come warmer weather are tricked into jumping away...
Read MoreI spent a good part of my childhood at home staring outside my bedroom window, following the trail of planes approaching the nearby Paris airport in the sky from my banlieue. I envied the passengers...
Read MoreThe tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right...
Read MoreThe thing about new blooms is that they tend to bleed— / Those petals birthed / hugging close / that come warmer weather are tricked into jumping away...
Read MoreI spent a good part of my childhood at home staring outside my bedroom window, following the trail of planes approaching the nearby Paris airport in the sky from my banlieue. I envied the passengers...
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