Critical Essays

the book cover for The Trees Witness Everything featuring the title against a pink background

W. S. Merwin’s Ancestral Memory in Victoria Chang’s The Trees Witness Everything

Almost every poem in Victoria Chang’s new collection gets its title from a W. S. Merwin poem of the same name. Both poets seem to believe in the idea that history and life are really just ongoing cycles designed to propel us forward, just as they also keep us tied to our pasts.

the book cover for The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, featuring a yellow background and an illustration of a nice hat

Oliver Sacks and the Narratives of Disability

Oliver Sacks recognized that stories have a closer connection to the full complexity of the human condition than science. Nine years after the birth of my daughter, however, I realized that most existing narratives tell us more about cultural misconceptions of Down syndrome than providing a full, complex picture of human experience.