America

À La Recherche de l’Amérique Perdue: Fantasizing America

À La Recherche de l’Amérique Perdue: Fantasizing America

ByA.K. Afferez

To say that the French have a love-hate relationship with the United States is an understatement. We’ll be tssk-tssking Americans for their alleged anti-intellectualism and Puritan mores, while unabashedly dreaming Technicolor dreams of New York and California and happily binging on series. There’s also a strong mainstream appetite for American literature, or at least one…

Picture of a protest with people holding signs, one that reads "Freedom of Speech includes the press"

The Ploughshares Round-Down: The State of Poetry in the US

ByTasha Golden

Early last month, PEN International publicly condemned the killing of Thai poet Mainueng K. Kunthee. The poet had been shot to death on April 23rd, presumably because of his public criticisms of the monarchy and Thailand’s lèse majesté law.  Known as a poet of the people, Kunthee was immensely popular; his work “spoke of social justice, the rights of the poor, and…