Literature Exile

Once upon a time, diasporic literature was political literature, our interest in it focused, as Joseph Brodsky said by 'the rise of tyrannies' and our engagement in the Cold War. Today, the collapse of old political certainties has fundamentally altered the debate over immigration and the significance of immigrant literature.
Today, the West's attitude to immigration is insular, expressed as a provincial fear of the outside world; but for much of the late twentieth century, the politics of immigration was a window onto that world, a sign of the West's inextricable - if often misguided - engagement with lives and events beyond its borders. Refugees from behind the Iron Curtain were fleeing a tyranny that threatened us all.
· Diasporic writing [Eurozine]

When it comes to writing about Cold River

When an author attempts to render a character's reaction to the cold by having that character say, "Brrrrr," how many "r's" are required to convey bone-clamping, eyeball-clenching cold? Three seems a tad too few; four, a smidgen too many. Five is just showing off.
· Brrrrrrr [Chicago Tribune]

Kurt Vonnegut, whose quote inspires this blog, gives a highly personal version of how his son was stricken by illness.