Literary Nonfiction

Gliding like giant fish past our villa, sometimes Dubai’s city buses, with their whirring, unsettle me—the long sigh of the air conditioning let out as exits unfold their mechanical arms and passengers spill onto the sidewalk. When we first arrived in the United Arab Emirates eighteen months ago for my husband’s job, I tried hard …

1. The chair was designed to withstand knocks and blows, the biting waters of the sea. 2. It’s known as the 1006 Navy Chair, first built by Emeco, the Electric Machine and Equipment Company, in collaboration with Alcoa, the Aluminum Company of America. 3. Commissioned in 1944 by the US Navy to be used on …

I am playing the role of a little old lady, pleasantly plump and talkative, telling her life story, says Agnès Varda as she guides us through her memories, reflecting on her life as an artist and filmmaker, with beaches as the connective thread. Memories like these compose an identity, make life understood. The North Sea …

The Sentence My father’s heart exhausted itself. Cardiac arrest, the cardiologist said. A man was arrested in my Ugandan village when I was a child. A few years later he was released, only to steal and get sentenced again. Release can mean its opposite—”stretch out again” from Latin. Acquire back. So, this catch-release-and-release went on …

Because of China’s nature, there is a high possibility of conflict. —Chen Po-Wei, Taiwanese lawmaker quoted in the New York Times, July 1, 2020 It used to be my day off, July 1. I would rise early, maybe hit the gym or meet my hiking partner for a walk through the New Territories at sunrise. …

Like a lot of people, I imagine that if I make my telepathic frustration with whomever NPR is interviewing strong enough, I can call it activism. And then I am angry at myself for being one more ineffectual, self-satisfied, ego-driven jackass yelling at the radio. Like anybody, I like to look at pictures of animals …

—Fort Knox, Kentucky, June 2002 Army Basic Training: we march and sing cadence everywhere we go. The chow hall. The motor pool of tanks. The obstacle course. Whether the march lasts two minutes or two hours, we sing, and depending on the drill sergeant, the cadence can involve anything from love of army to homesickness, …

1 Teh-chang came home a couple of days after the surgery, wheeled out of the hospital with a cotton bandage wrapped around his head cartoon-style and, even stranger-looking, a white mesh Styrofoam netting gathered into a point on top of that, which made him resemble a delicate fruit packaged for long-distance transportation. He had survived …

The settlement, or rancheria of mission Indians, after being established was placed in charge of a trustworthy Indian, Hipolito, from whom it took its name of Politana [located in the San Bernardino Valley]. The little mission flourished exceedingly until 1812, which was known as “el ano de los temblores’’ (the year of earthquakes), when the …

You can see them, if you look closely, in all the old photographs: my fingers flush at the knuckles and nails, squeezed tight as window blinds so no light can slip between. It’s Christmastime in this one. We’re standing in front of the flocked plastic tree. The parcels beneath it, shiny gold with silver bows, …