Order your copy of Columbia Journal's Spring 2019 edition, Issue 57, featuring work by Jenny Holzer, Patti Smith, Eileen Myles, Duy Doan, and Donika Kelly.
Review: Ways of Hearing by Damon Krukowski
Based on the podcast of the same name from Radiotopia, the book is a multimodal experience, one that opens the ears through the eyes.
The Flea
I power-walked to my laptop with a bizarre strut, like my flea infected leg was made of wood.
The Word Process: An Interview with Mira T. Lee
You can have a great character, but if they’re not interacting with other people in a dynamic way, the story’s not going to light up.
Something Tangible: An Interview with Emma Ramadan
Translator Emma Ramadan on her career path and translating Delphine Minoui’s newly released memoir, I’m Writing You From Tehran.
Fishing for Blues
Soon, he had the bluefish, a good twelve-pounder, upon the sand, and she was flipping her tail.
The Winners of the 2018 Winter Contest
Columbia Journal is excited to announce the 2018 Winter Contest winners and finalists in nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.
Review: Two Sisters by Åsne Seierstad Translated by Sean Kinsella
In late 2013, nineteen-year-old Ayan and sixteen-year-old Leila abruptly departed their adopted home of Norway to join the Syrian jihad.
America of the Wholesale Warehouse
The supervisor aims the scanner at the barcode of her bulk package of hamburger meat, pulls the trigger.
Review: Oculus by Sally Wen Mao
Sally Wen Mao's stunning second collection, Oculus, focuses not just on sight but on the politics of seeing—its intimacies, failures, elusions, evasions.
Review: The Nine Cloud Dream by Kim Man-Jung Translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl
The strength of the new translation lies not only in its supplementary material but in Fenkl’s appreciation both for his sources and his audience.
Tolerance
I had told myself that my tolerance was a virtue, but perhaps it was a weakness, a form of passivity.
Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney
Nobody in Sally Rooney’s new novel Normal People—an addictive account of the relationship between two brainy college students—would ever use the word “intimacy.”