Abstract: After finding the tooth of a mythical person named Jalee in a community trash heap, Maja stirs up attention first from his small community, then from all of Kashmir and state governments beyond. While its importance is demonstrated through the various characters reverence toward the tooth, Maja’s questions about its provenance are seemingly left unanswered.
Abstract: Artist Constanza works an interpreter for immigrants from Latin America, joining her cousin Demetrio in translating for patients during medical exams. Things go well until she meets one patient in particular, Moises, calls into the question the lines between client-translator and something more.
Abstract: A few years after his mother slices off part of his pinky cutting carrots for lasagna, seven-or-eight-year-old Charlie travels to his grandmothers for Christmas. The car ride, indeed, the whole trip to Virginia is tense with distrust, disputes, and new faces, all through the perspective of a child in a world of grown-ups.
Abstract: Cressman researches the history of Centralia, Kansas at the public library for an upcoming book about twelve American cities named Centralia. “History is a train hurling through stretches of time-space, stopping momentarily at railroad stations, events where we hop on and off.” Cressman lists the history of Centralia from 200 million years ago to the present. Some personal recollections are woven into the essay.
Abstract: Waking with the face of the political rebel she is to marry and save from execution, Augustina Paz wanders through a summer day perforated by the political struggle of 19th Century Argentina and her own personal desires.
Abstract: Beginning with a scene of helping her father write out checks, Rhonda Mitchell examines her family’s history to examine how denied education, disability, and racialized policy compound across generations.
