This is the time of year when every website publishes lists, and while North Dakota Quarterly has worked hard not to be “every website,” we do think there is some value in gently directing the reader back to some of the more notable articles and pages that we posted this year.
1. The most popular destination for visitors to the North Dakota Quarterly page is our collection of issues and articles related to Ernest Hemingway. Celebrating former-editor Robert Lewis’s lasting contribution to the Quarterly, this page highlights 8 special issues and over a dozen articles that explore all aspects of Hemingway’s work and influence.
2. From classic literature to current events, the next most popular read this year was Eric Burin’s reflections on Colin Kaepernick’s place in American history. Stay tuned for more from Burin on Kaepernick this year as he brings together perspectives from all corners of the U.S. into a single volume.
3. Gayatri Devi’s review of Jean Casella’s, James Ridgeway’s, and Sarah Shourd’s Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement (2016) considered both the powerful, first hand experiences of solitary confinement and the legal standing of this cruel form of punishment.
4. Eric Burin’s again brings historical perspective to contemporary events with a distinctive view on the former Liberian refugee, Wilmont Collin’s, election as mayor of Helena, Montana.
5. Paul Worley’s unique dossier of translated Tsotsil Maya poetry, Snichimal Vayuchil, represents North Dakota Quarterly’s first foray into an occasional, supplemental series. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you should now. A little bird has mentioned that it will be available in paperback early in 2018.
6. If you haven’t yet read Yusuf Eradam’s essay from “My Life=A Haiku: The Transnational Eco-Ecesis of an Anatolian Boy via Creativity in the Age of the Anthropocene” of growing up and growing wise in the Anthropocene, you should.
7. Do read Sharon Carson’s reflections on visiting Nicodemus, Kansas, the first African American settlement in that state. She offers a very brief but intriguing glimpse of the site and its complex and important history.
8. Çiğdem Pala Mull, Sharon Carson, and Gayatri Devi introduce NDQ 84.1/2 which is dedicated to transnationalism. If there can be a fitting capstone to Sharon Carson’s term as editor of NDQ, this might well be it. Drop us a line if you want a copy in the new year!
9. Chris Gable reminds us that “Anything that’s Rock ‘n’ Roll is Fine” in his appreciation of Tom Petty.
10. And, finally, it would hardly be North Dakota Quarterly without a little Tom McGrath. Not only was our volume celebrating the centennial of Tom McGrath’s birth recognized by Best American Essays as a notable contribution, but we also brought together in a single page all of McGrath’s contributions to the Quarterly. Here’s a link to download the McGrath centennial volume.
Thanks again for reading NDQ and we look forward to continuing to bring you our distinct view of the world in 2018!
North Dakota Quarterly 