City Lights presents Aidan Levy in conversation with Ammiel Alcalay celebrating the publication of “SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins” by Aiden Levy, published by Hachette Books. This virtual event took place over Zoom and was hosted by Peter Maravelis.

You can purchase copies of "SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS” directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/saxophone-colossus-sonny-rollins/

Aidan Levy is the author of “Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed” and editor of “Patti Smith on Patti Smith: Interviews and Encounters”. A former Leon Levy Center for Biography Fellow, his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, JazzTimes, The Nation and other publications. He has served as co-convener of the African American Studies Colloquium and works with the Center for Jazz Studies at at Columbia University. For ten years, he was the baritone saxophonist in the Stan Rubin Orchestra.

Ammiel Alcalay is a poet, novelist, translator, critic, and scholar. His books include “a little history”, “from the warring factions”, “Memories of Our Future”, and “After Jews and Arabs”. “Ghost Talk”, A Bibliography for “After Jews & Arabs” and “A Dove in Flight”, by Syrian poet and former political prisoner Faraj Bayrakdar, co-edited with Shareah Taleghani, all came out in 2021. "Follow the Person: Archival Encounters, and Controlled Demolition", a poem in four books, are due out in 2023. Alcalay is the founder and general editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative (http://centerforthehumanities.org/lost-and-found), for which he was recognized in 2017 with a Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award.

This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Aidan Levy in conversation with Ammiel Alcalay

City Lights LIVE and Litquake celebrate the final issue of John Freeman’s distinguished journal “Freeman’s: Conclusions,” published by Grove Atlantic, with John Freeman, joined by Jaime Cortez, Elaine Castillo, and Oscar Villaon.

Over the course of ten years, “Freeman’s" has introduced the English-speaking world to countless writers of international import and acclaim, from Olga Tokarczuk to Valeria Luiselli, while also spotlighting brilliant writers working in English, from Tommy Orange to Tess Gunty. Now, in its last issue, this unique literary project ponders all the ways of reaching a fitting conclusion.

For Sayaka Murata, keeping up with the comings and goings of fashion and its changing emotional landscapes can mean being left behind, and in her poem “Amenorrhea,” Julia Alvarez experiences the end of the line as menopause takes hold. Yet sometimes an end is merely a beginning, as Barry Lopez meditates while walking through the snowy Oregonian landscapes. While Chinelo Okparanta’s story “Fatu” confronts the end of a relationship under the specter of new life, other writers look towards aging as an opportunity for rebirth, such as Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, who takes on the role of being her own elder, comforting herself in the ways that her grandmother used to. Finally, in his comic story “Everyone at Dinner Has a Max von Sydow Story,” Dave Eggers suggests that sometimes stories don’t have neat or clean endings—that sometimes the middle is enough.

John Freeman is the founder of the literary annual “Freeman’s” and the author and editor of ten books, including “Dictionary of the Undoing,” “The Park,” “Tales of Two Planets,” “The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story,” and, with Tracy K. Smith, “There’s a Revolution Outside,” “My Love”. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Orion, and been translated into over twenty languages. The former editor of Granta, he lives in New York City, where he teaches writing at NYU and is an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf.

Jaime Cortez is a writer and visual artist based in Watsonville, California. His fiction, essays, and drawings have appeared in diverse publications that include “Kindergarde: Experimental Writing For Children,” “No Straight Lines,” a 40-year compendium of LGBT comics, “Street Art San Francisco,” and “Infinite Cities,” an experimental atlas of San Francisco. He wrote and illustrated the graphic novel “Sexile” for AIDS Project Los Angeles in 2003. “Gordo” is Jaime’s debut collection of short stories, and was published by Grove Atlantic to national acclaim in 2021. Jaime received his BA in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania, and his MFA from UC Berkeley. 

Elaine Castillo, named one of “30 of the planet’s most exciting young people” by the Financial Times, was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her debut novel “America Is Not the Heart” was named one of the best books of 2018 and has been nominated for the Elle Award, the Center for Fiction Prize, the Aspen Words Prize, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Book Award, and the California Book Award.  Her essay collection “How To Read Now” was published to wide acclaim in July 2022, and was chosen as the September pick for Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club, among others. Her latest longform essay on grief, dog rescue and the politics of dog training is forthcoming this fall from Scribd. She is currently working on her second novel, to be published in late 2024/early 2025.

Oscar Villalon is the editor of “ZYZZYVA." His work has been published in The Believer, Freeman’s, VQR, Stranger’s Guide, Alta, and many other publications. He lives with his wife and son in San Francisco.

You can purchase copies of “Freeman’s: Conclusions” at https://citylights.com/freemans-conclusions/ 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/

John Freeman and Friends

City Lights LIVE! presents "Insurgent Beatitudes: The History of a Cultural Center,” a conversation between Elaine Katzenberger, Amy Scholder, and Paul Yamazaki, moderated by David L. Ulin. 

Continuing its 70th anniversary celebratory programming, City Lights Books brings together those who are at the heart of its core. 

City Lights was founded as a cultural hub, providing space and encouragement for a creative cross-pollination across the arts, as well as the realms of politics, philosophy, and social change. Here’s a chance to hear about our history from some of the folks who’ve made significant contributions over the years, working alongside Lawrence Ferlinghetti and beyond, guiding City Lights into its present and future. 

David L. Ulin is the author or editor of nearly twenty books, including "Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles,” shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the novel "Ear to the Ground." His fiction has appeared in Black Clock, The Santa Monica Review, Scoundrel Time, and Zyzzyva, among other publications. 

Elaine Katzenberger is the executive director of City Lights and the publisher of City Lights Books. 

Amy Scholder is a literary editor, documentary filmmaker, and a former editor at City Lights Books where she began her career. 

Paul Yamazaki has been a bookseller since 1970. He has been the principal buyer at City Lights Booksellers for more than thirty years.

Insurgent Beautitudes: The History of a Cultural Center

City Lights LIVE! celebrates the publication of “Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice” from City Lights Books, edited by Lynn Lewis, with a conversation between the editor and contributors Hilary Moore and Malkia Devich-Cyril.
 – Edited by Lynn Lewis – published by City Lights Books 

“Women Who Change the World” examines the inspiring oral histories of women fighting for justice and radical social change at community, state, and national levels. 

Award-winning oral historian Lynn Lewis brings together the stories of nine exceptional women, from their earliest formative experiences to their current strategies as movement leaders, organizers, and cultural workers. Each chapter is dedicated to one activist–Malkia Devich-Cyril, Priscilla Gonzalez, Terese Howard, Hilary Moore, Vanessa Nosie, Roz Pelles, Loretta Ross, Yomara Velez, and Betty Yu. Reflecting on the paths their lives have taken, they talk about their struggles and aspirations, insights and victories, and what keeps them in the fight for a better world. 

The life stories of these inspiring women reveal the many ways the experience of injustice can catalyze resistance and a commitment to making change. They demonstrate how the relationships and bonds of collective struggle for the common good not only win justice, but create hope, love, and joy. 

Lynn Lewis is an oral historian, educator, and community organizer. She is the author of “Love and Collective Resistance: Lessons from the Picture the Homeless Oral History Project” and is the former executive director and past civil rights organizer at “Picture the Homeless.” Lewis is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a 2022/2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Oral History Fellowship. She makes her home in New York City. 

Malkia Devich-Cyril is an organizer, activist, movement builder, writer, poet, educator, public speaker, and social justice leader in the areas of Black liberation and digital rights in expansive and profound ways that connect racialized capitalism to the digital economy. In her “Women Who Change the World” oral history, Malkia reflects on the responsibility of lineage, conferred by her mother, a leader of the Harlem Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Related to this is the theme of belonging: to family, community, and movement and the importance of narrative struggle to make meaning and build power to change material conditions. At the time of this interview, Malkia was formulating an analysis around the relationship between grief, grievance, and governance as a critical strategy to win freedom. Malkia, who also goes by Mac, was born and raised in New York City, and lives in Oakland, California. 

Hilary Moore is an organizer, educator and author who works within an anti-racist framework that links movements to abolish the police and the military with environmental justice, racial justice, and anti-imperialist struggles in the U.S. and internationally. She draws connections between eco-fascism, white supremacy, policing, the military, and surveillance that forecasts many of the dynamics we see today. In her “Women Who Change the World” oral history, she reflects on the process of her own political development and explores the meaning of belonging, creating community and connection. She describes the importance of mentorship and the role of storytelling as a way to build connection, leadership, and movement. Born in Sacramento, California, and raised in rural northern California, Hilary now lives in Louisville, Kentucky. 

You can purchase copies of “Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice” at https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/women-who-change-the-world-stories-from/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Lynn Lewis and Friends

City Lights LIVE! presents Myriam Gurba in conversation with visual artist MariNaomi to celebrate the release of Gurba’s new book “Creep: Accusations and Confessions,” published by Simon and Schuster. 

A ruthless and razor-sharp essay collection that tackles the pervasive, creeping oppression and toxicity that has wormed its way into society—in our books, schools, and homes, as well as the systems that perpetuate them—from the acclaimed author of “Mean,” and one of our fiercest, foremost explorers of intersectional Latinx identity. 

A creep can be a singular figure, a villain who makes things go bump in the night. Yet “creep" is also what the fog does—it lurks into place to do its dirty work, muffling screams, obscuring the truth, and providing cover for those prowling within it. 

“Creep” is Myriam Gurba’s informal sociology of creeps, a deep dive into the dark recesses of the toxic traditions that plague the United States and create the abusers who haunt our books, schools, and homes. Through cultural criticism disguised as personal essay, Gurba studies the ways in which oppression is collectively enacted, sustaining ecosystems that unfairly distribute suffering and premature death to our most vulnerable. Yet identifying individual creeps, creepy social groups, and creepy cultures is only half of this book’s project—the other half is examining how we as individuals, communities, and institutions can challenge creeps and rid ourselves of the fog that seeks to blind us. 

With her ruthless mind, wry humor, and adventurous style, Gurba implicates everyone from Joan Didion to her former abuser, everything from Mexican stereotypes to the carceral state. Braiding her own history and identity throughout, she argues for a new way of conceptualizing oppression, and she does it with her signature blend of bravado and humility. 

Myriam Gurba is a writer and artist. She is the author of the true crime memoir “Mean,” a New York Times Editors’ Choice. O, The Oprah Magazine, ranked “Mean” as one of the best LGBTQ books of all time. Publishers Weekly describes Gurba as having a voice like no other. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The Paris Review, Time, and 4Columns. She has shown art in galleries, museums, and community centers. She lives in Pasadena, California. 

MariNaomi (they/them) is the award-winning author and illustrator of “Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume,” “Ages 0 to 22,” “Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories,” "Turning Japanese," “I Thought YOU Hated ME,” the “Life on Earth” trilogy, “Dirty Produce,” and “I Thought You Loved Me.” Their work has appeared in nearly 100 print publications, and has been featured on websites such as The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast, SF Examiner, and BuzzFeed. Their comics have been translated into French (Devenir Japonaise, Editions IMHO, 2021), German, and Russian. 

You can purchase copies of “Creep” at https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/creep-accusations-confessions/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Myriam Gurba

City Lights LIVE celebrates the publication of “the delicacy of embracing spirals” by mimi tempestt, published by City Lights, with a conversation between the poet and Truong Tran. 

Incendiary, lyrical poems of liberations from the phantasm of Black womanhood. 

Wedding fierce, jagged lines to an uncompromisingly lyrical flow honed over years of performance, mimi tempestt writes poems that are by turns cerebral, profane, revolutionary, comedic, erotic, and sentimental. “the delicacy of embracing spirals” is her second book, an investigation of the ways in which the personal narrative of Black womanhood can be expressed through a radically human lens. With a visual sensibility that eventually explodes across the page, the collection begins with microcosmic poems of personal struggle and spirals out to macrocosmic texts of social and political critique. The book culminates in a fantastic account of the impossible staging of a play where the lives of the characters and the audience are at stake. 

A blend of theatre and melodrama, narrative and lyricism, the delicacy of embracing spirals ranges from a confrontation with abusive lovers and predatory promoters, to an excoriation of police brutality and gender oppression, to a critique of the commodification of Black artists for white consumption. mimi tempestt expresses an ongoing dialectical consciousness about being Black, being woman, being queer, being radical, and most essentially, being complicatedly human. The poems engage with the “performance” of oppression that can deter the possibilities of selfhood, liberation, and autonomy, asking three central questions: “What haunts you? What hunts you? Who and what are you hunting?” 

mimi tempestt (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and daughter of California. She has a M.A. in Literature from Mills College, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Creative/Critical Ph.D. in Literature at UC Santa Cruz. Her first book, “the monumental misrememberings,” was published with Co-Conspirator Press/The Feminist Center for Creative Work in 2020. In 2021, she was selected for participation in the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices & Writers, and was a Creative Fellow at The Ruby in San Francisco. Her works can be found in Foglifter, Interim Poetics, and at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A native of Los Angeles, she currently resides in Berkeley, CA. 

Truong Tran is a Vietnamese-American poet, visual artist, and teacher. He is an author of five collections of poetry and a children’s book. As a visual artist, Tran is best known for mixed-media pieces, though he has worked in multiple mediums.

You can purchase copies of “the delicacy of embracing spirals” at https://citylights.com/delicacy-of-emracing-spirals/.  

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

mimi tempestt

City Lights LIVE! presents "Found in Translation: Adventures in Language." As part of its 70th Anniversary programming, City Lights celebrates literature in translation with a discussion moderated by Olivia E. Sears, featuring Gabriela Alemán, Dick Cluster, Gillian Conoloy, Elaine Katzenberger, Emilie Moorehouse, and Mark Schafer. 

City Lights was conceived as an international project. From the very beginning, from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s own translations of Jacques Prévert , and on to some of the exciting authors City Lights publishes today, the world in translation has been at the core of the City Lights mission. Spend an evening with the editors and translators who have helped shape the translation program at City Lights. 

Dick Cluster is a writer and translator living in Oakland, California. He translated Gabriela Alemán’s “Poso Wells” and “Family Album: Stories.” 

Gillian Conoloy is a poet, editor, and translator. Her new collection is “Notes from the Passenger,” released from Nightboat Books in May 2023. Conoley’s translations of three books by Henri Michaux, including “Thousand Times Broken,” appeared in English for the first time, with City Lights Books. 

Elaine Katzenberger is the executive director of City Lights and the publisher of City Lights Books. 

Emilie Moorehouse is a teacher, writer, translator, and environmentalist. She translated “Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems” by Joyce Mansour for City Lights Books. 

Mark Schafer is a literary translator, a visual artist, and a senior lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he teaches Spanish. City Lights recently published his translations of Belén Gopegui’s “Stay This Day and Night with Me” (2023) and “The Scale of Maps “(2010), a novel by Alberto Ruy Sánchez entitled “Mogador: The Names of the Air” (2004), and “Dawn of the Senses: Selected Poems,” an anthology of poems by Alberto Blanco. 

This event was made possible with the support of the Center for the Art of Translation/Two Lines Press and the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more about Center for the Art of Translation visit: https://www.catranslation.org/. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Found In Translation: Adventures in Language

City Lights LIVE, The New Press, and Princeton University Press celebrate the publication of two new books: “America Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration” by Benjamin Weber, published by The New Press, and "To Build a Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care” by Christopher Paul Harris, published by Princeton University Press. 

“American Purgatory” is a vivid work of hidden history that spans the wars to subjugate Native Americans in the mid-nineteenth century, the conquest of the western territories, and the creation of an American empire in Panama, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. "American Purgatory" reveals how “prison imperialism”—the deliberate use of prisons to control restive, subject populations—is written into our national DNA, extending through to our modern era of mass incarceration. Weber also uncovers a surprisingly rich history of prison resistance, from the Seminole Chief Osceola to Assata Shakur—one that invites us to rethink the scope of America’s long freedom struggle. 

To “Build a Black Future” examines the spirit and significance of this insurgency, offering a revelatory account of a new political culture—responsive to pain, suffused with joy, and premised on care—emerging from the centuries-long arc of Black rebellion, a tradition that traces back to the Black slave. Drawing on his own experiences as an activist and organizer, Christopher Paul Harris takes readers inside the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) to chart the propulsive trajectory of Black politics and thought from the Middle Passage to the present historical moment. Carefully attending to the social forces that produce Black struggle and the contradictions that arise within it, Harris illustrates how M4BL gives voice to an abolitionist praxis that bridges the past, present, and future, outlining a political project at once directed inward to the Black community while issuing an outward challenge to the world. 

Benjamin Weber is an assistant professor of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis. He has worked at the Vera Institute of Justice, Alternate ROOTS, the Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, and as a public high school teacher in East Los Angeles. He makes his home in Davis, California. 

Christopher Paul Harris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and International Studies at University of California, Irvine. His research interests range from Black political thought, culture, aesthetics, and social movements to broader questions concerning the possibility of revolutionary transformation in the 21st century. Advancing an abolitionist critique of the capitalist world-system, his work aims to understand the political lives, thought, and cultures of the Black diaspora and the underlying social forces that shape them. 

You can purchase copies of “America Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration” at https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/amer-purgatory-prison-imperialism/. 

You can purchase copies of “To Build a Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care” at https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/to-build-a-black-future-radical-politi/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Benjamin Weber & Christopher Paul Harris

City Lights LIVE, Beacon Press, and Refugee Immigrant Transitions celebrate the publication of “Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust System” by Bill Ong Hing, published by Beacon Press. 

“Humanizing Immigration” is the first book to argue that immigrant and refugee rights are part of the fight for racial justice; and offers a humanitarian approach to reform and abolition. Representing non-citizens caught up in what he calls the immigration and enforcement “meat grinder”, Bill Ong Hing witnessed their trauma, arriving at this conclusion: migrants should have the right to free movement across borders—and the right to live free of harassment over immigration status. 

He cites examples of racial injustices endemic in immigration law and enforcement, from historic courtroom cases to the recent treatment of Haitian migrants. Hing includes histories of Mexican immigration, African migration and the Asian exclusion era, all of which reveal ICE abuse and a history of often forgotten racist immigration laws. 

While ultimately arguing for the abolishment of ICE, Hing advocates for change now. With 50 years of law practice and litigation experience, Hing has represented non-citizens—from gang members to asylum seekers fleeing violence, and from individuals in ICE detention to families at the U.S. southern border seeking refuge. 

Bill Ong Hing is Professor of Law and Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco, and Professor of Law and Asian American Studies Emeritus, at UC Davis. Previously on the law faculties at Stanford University and Golden Gate University, he founded the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco and directs their Immigration & Deportation Defense Clinic. Professor Hing teaches Immigration Law & Policy, Migration Studies, Rebellious Lawyering, and Evidence, is the author of 6 books, and was co-counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court asylum precedent-setting case "INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca" (1987). 

Jane Pak is Co-Executive Director at Refugee and Immigrant Transitions and Adjunct Professor in the Masters in Migration Studies program at the University of San Francisco (USF). Her scholarship and praxis are informed by Critical Refugee Studies; liberatory education; and transnational solidarity. Jane is most energized when engaging with diverse communities and knowledge in collective contexts. Her background is in strategy, development, and research in education and refugee contexts. She has worked in community, nonprofit, government, and business sectors. Jane’s work for justice is motivated by a multi-generational family history of forced migration, resistance, and service. 

You can purchase copies of “Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust System” at https://citylights.com/humanizing-immigration-ht-transfor/. 

This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. 

To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Bill Ong Hing

City Lights celebrates No.23 in the "Spotlight Poetry Series"

Roberto Harrison reads from his work. Introduction by Garrett Caples. Julien Poirier will also be reading from his work. In person event held in City Lights' Poetry Room, hosted by Peter Maravelis. 

Purchase "Isthmus to Abya Yala" By Roberto Harrison here: https://citylights.com/isthmus-to-abya-yala-spotlight-23/ 

A conjuration of ancient consciousness aimed at rehumanizing our contemporary cyborg condition.

“Abya Yala”–“land of life” or “land of vital blood”–is a Pre-Columbian term of the Guna people of Panamá and Colombia to refer to the American continent and more recently has signified the idea of a decolonized “New World” among various Indigenous movements. In Isthmus to Abya Yala, Panamanian American poet Roberto Harrison summons a mythic consciousness in response to this political and spiritual struggle.

In his poems, with mystic fervor, Harrison finds phonetic unities concealing conceptual oppositions he must transcend. Invoking “mobilian” as an ur-language against racism and toward an all-inclusive humanity–in opposition to the “mobile” of phone-mediated existence–the poems of "Isthmus to Abya Yala" burn with a visionary ardor that overpowers rationality through an intensive accumulation of imagery. They even sometimes manifest as visual poems in the form of drawings he calls “Tecs,” opposing the dominance of technology to the advocacy of pan-Indian nationhood by 19th century Shawnee leader Tecumseh. “Tecumseh Republic” is the poet’s name for a new post-racial, post-national, post-binary, post-colonial, holistic and earth-oriented society with no national borders, with Panamá, the isthmus, as its only entry and exit.

Roberto Harrison’s poetry books include "Tropical Lung: exi(s)t(s)" (Omnidawn, 2021), "Tropical Lung: Mitologia Panameña" (Nion Editions, 2020), "Yaviza" (Atelos, 2017), "Bridge of the World" (Litmus Press, 2017), "culebra" (Green Lantern Press, 2016), "bicycle" (Noemi Press, 2015), "Counter Daemons" (Litmus Press, 2006), "Os" (subpress, 2006), as well as many chapbooks. With Andrew Levy, Harrison edited the poetry journal "Crayon" from 1997 to 2008. He was also the editor of Bronze Skull Press which published over 20 chapbooks, including the work of many Midwestern poets. Most recently, Harrison served as a co-editor for the "Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance" anthology. He was the Milwaukee Poet Laureate from 2017–2019 and is also a visual artist. He lives in Milwaukee with his wife, the poet Brenda Cárdenas.

Julien Poirier teaches poetry in the San Francisco public schools and at San Quentin State Prison. His book "Out of Print" was published by City Lights in 2016. He is also the author of "El Golpe Chileño" (2010), "Stained Glass Windows of California" (2012), and "Way Too West" (2015), among other volumes. With Garrett Caples, he edited Incidents of "Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems" (2016) by Frank Lima for City Lights. He is also a co-founder of Ugly Duckling Presse Collective, where he edited a poetry newspaper, "New York Nights," as well as an anthology of writing by Jack Micheline, "One of a Kind" (Ugly Duckling, 2008), and a book of travel journals by Bill Berkson, "Invisible Oligarchs" (Ugly Duckling, 2016). He is currently the mastermind behind the mail art publication Night Mail.

Originally broadcast on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Roberto Harrison With Julien Poirier

Jordan Elgrably in conversation with Sarah AlKahly-Mills, with readings from both authors. 

City Lights celebrates the publication of "Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction," edited by Jordan Elgrably, published by City Lights Books.

You can purchase copies directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/stories-from-the-center-of-the-world/

"Stories from the Center of the World" gathers new writing from 25 emerging and established writers of Middle Eastern and North African origins, offering a unique collection of voices and viewpoints that illuminate life in the global Arab/Muslim world. The authors included in the book come from a wide range of cultures and countries, including Palestine, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco.

In “Asha and Haaji,” Hanif Kureishi takes up the cause of outsiders who become uprooted when war or disaster strikes and they flee for safe haven. In Nektaria Anastasiadou‘s “The Location of the Soul According to Benyamin Alhadeff,” two students in Istanbul from different classes — and religions that have often been at odds with one another — believe they can overcome all obstacles. MK Harb‘s story, “Counter Strike,” is about queer love among Beiruti adolescents; and Salar Abdoh‘s “The Long Walk of the Martyrs” invites us into the world of former militants, fighters who fought ISIS or Daesh in Iraq and Syria, who are having a hard time readjusting to civilian life. In “Eleazar,” Karim Kattan tells an unexpected Palestinian story in which the usual antagonists — Israeli occupation forces — are mostly absent, while another malevolent force seems to overtake an unsuspecting family. Omar El Akkad‘s “The Icarist” is a coming-of-age story about the underworld in which illegal immigrants are forced to live, and what happens when one dares to break away.

Contributors include: Salar Abdoh, Leila Aboulela, Farah Ahamed, Omar El Akkad, Sarah AlKahly-Mills, Nektaria Anastasiadou, Amany Kamal Eldin, Jordan Elgrably, Omar Foda, May Haddad, Danial Haghighi, Malu Halasa, MK Harb, Alireza Iranmehr, Karim Kattan, Hanif Kureishi, Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi, Diary Marif, Tariq Mehmood, Sahar Mustafah, Mohammed Al-Naas, Ahmed Naji, Mai Al-Nakib, Abdellah Taia, and Natasha Tynes.

Jordan Elgrably is a Franco-American and Moroccan writer and translator, whose stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and reviews, including Apulée, Salmagundi, and The Paris Review. Editor-in-chief and founder of The Markaz Review, he is the cofounder and former director of the Levantine Cultural Center/The Markaz in Los Angeles (2001-2020), and producer of the stand-up comedy show “The Sultans of Satire” (2005-2017) and hundreds of other public programs. He is based in Montpellier, France and California.

Sarah AlKahly-Mills is a Lebanese-American writer. Her story “The Salamander” is included in the new book "Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction," edited by Jordan Elgrably, and just published by City Lights. Her fiction, poetry, book reviews, and essays have appeared in publications including Litro Magazine, Ink and Oil, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Michigan Quarterly Review, PopMatters, Al-Fanar Media, Middle East Eye, and various university journals. Born in Burbank, CA, she now lives in Rome, Italy.

Originally hosted live in City Lights' Poetry Room on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Hosted by Peter Maravelis. 

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation cosponsored with Golden Thread Productions. citylights.com/foundation

Jordan Elgrably with Sarah AlKahly-Mills

The official podcast for City Lights Publishers & Booksellers in San Francisco. Featuring readings and archives. Hosted by City Lights events coordinator Peter Maravelis.

Aidan Levy in conversation with Ammiel Alcalay

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