Contemporary International Writers

In “I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops,” author Hanan al-Shaykh illustrates the desire of travel for the main character, which is unusual due to where she is from. While the narrative goes on, we learn more about others warning her about life outside Morocco but can infer that she might have made the sacrifice to […]

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 They were eaten up heart and soul with their love for Christ. This was true love, the like of which he had never found in any novel, translated or otherwise. Never before had he encountered such passion and devotion. Was this what they called sacrifice? The dwarf checked himself. Of course. They had sacrificed the […]

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Hanan al-Shaykh’s “The Keeper of Virgins” centers around an unnamed dwarf narrator who is trying to gain access to a convent.  A young woman named Georgette has recently become a member of the convent and the dwarf wants to find her, which is why he is so fixated on joining it.  It is implied that […]

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This story first appealed to me because of its simplicity, but my interest in it deepened as I took notice of some of its deeper elements.  “The dwarf,” as the protagonist is called, appears to be a simple character.  His one desire at the beginning of the story is to enter the convent, which has […]

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“I didn’t chew my fingers with regret at giving him my virginity, furious at my weakness in lying down for him, and taking this boy in my arms just because he was English, a citizen of that great nation which had once ruled half the globe; nor did I blame myself for having clung to […]

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In “The Keeper of the Virgins” and “I Swept the Sun off Rooftops,” Hanan al-Shaykh deals with the outsider. Both of these characters are either outsiders in a different country or outsiders in their own culture. In “The Keeper of Virgins,” the dwarf believes he does not belong anywhere but the convent where he spends […]

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In her “The Keeping of the Virgins”, Hanan Al-Shaykh uses language beautifully to immerse the reader into the story. There are many lovely descriptions in this body of work, both in rhythm and imagery. “They had grown used to seeing him every morning shortly after they set to work, bending over the hibiscus bushes to […]

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After eating a piece of chicken dipped in cumin and saffron, which he seemed to have liked, he asked me where I came from. I told him and it was as if I’d opened Heaven’s door. His face softened, his pupils grew bigger, and his irises went deep green like olive oil. Enthusiastically he told […]

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Due Monday, October 8, at midnight: Five stanzas or five paragraphs, in this order:

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Throughout this story, the process of connection and separation serves as a key theme. We see this in the distance between Shoba and Shukumar at the beginning and then their slowly growing closer to each other only to separate again when Shoba tells Shukumar that she is leaving him. I do think that the way she tells him she is […]

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“A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri is about a couple dealing with the aftermath of the stillbirth of their son. After his death, Shoba and Shukumar find it harder and harder to maintain their relationship, hardly talking except in the safety of a darkened room. At the end of the story, we find out that Shoba […]

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They served themselves, stirring the rice with their forks, squinting as they extracted bay leaves and cloves from the stew. Every few minutes Shukumar lit a few more birthday candles and drove them into the soil of the pot. (Lahiri 621) When we think of candlelit dinners, we normally think of romance, of the beginnings of a relationship. […]

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Freedom in “A Temporary Marriage” & “Woman At Point Zero”   These two stories were very interesting, because of the large parallel drawn in regards to what I feel is the main theme of both, which is the women’s freedom. Although both women crave freedom from the traumatic events they were forced to endure, Firdaus […]

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When she came downstairs, Mr. Rhee was preparing snail soybean fermented stew and mung-bean pancakes. Mortified to see a man in a kitchen, she tried to wrench the spatula away, when she remembered where she was. This was America, she reasoned, as Mr. Rhee hugged the spatula. Hadn’t she come to live differently? ( Krys […]

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Tessa Fontaine, who’ll be reading at SBC next week, published this essay in The Believer Magazine. Here’s how the essay begins: The phone is an old rotary with small holes for your fingers. To make a call, guide your number past zero and once you release, it will carry itself back to where it began. […]

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“You were so angry.” She stood. “I only asked for what I deserved.”               – Krys Lee, “A Temporary Marriage” I chose this quote because it shows exactly what abuse does to a person, even after they are free from their abuser. Our main character, Mrs. Shin, has just […]

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While reading Krys Lee’s “A Temporary Marriage,” I found myself interested in the patriarchal society of Korea and how that affects families in Korea as well as those who have immigrated to the United States. I decided to look through some of Lee’s interviews on her website, and I found some interesting parallels between Lee’s […]

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I found Krys Lee’s “A Temporary Marriage” more than a little unsettling.  On the surface, it is a story about a mother trying to find her daughter and rebuild her life after her divorce.  As the story progresses, however, the underlying theme becomes apparent.  Mrs. Shin feels intense guilt and responsibility for everything that has […]

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The most compelling aspect of “A Temporary Marriage” for me is Mrs. Shin’s constant desire to be physically punished for any sort of wrongdoing on her part. In my mind, there are a couple of possible reasons for this. One is Mrs. Shin’s personality; throughout the story, she is demonstrated to be very independent and […]

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Have you ever fallen in love, Firdaus? No, Wafeya. I have never been in love. Then you are either living a lie or not living at all. –Nawal El Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero Woman at Point Zero is a narrative about a girl who has experienced awful abuse with the ending (I hope) being […]

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Compose a poem, scene, or story in an imaginary museum, one unlike any you’ve ever been in. Your aim is to say something — that is, to have something to say. What is it that you have to say? Why does it matter? Why should we care? Other questions you might ask yourself: What is […]

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