Congratulations to Sharon Carson, Gayatri Devi, and Cigdem Pala Mull for their special issue of North Dakota Quarterly on Transnationalism (volume 84.1/2) being recognized as a notable issue by the 2018 Best American Essays editors. Special recognition goes to Sharon Carson, Shawn Boyd, and Kate Sweney, who shepherded volume 84.1/2 through production as well
Sign of the Devil (printed in NDQ 84.1/2) Gilad Elbom A small record store. The address, an old edifice in a seldom-traveled thoroughfare in the center of London, wasn’t easy to find. In America, where things are constructed on a much larger scale, nobody would give a narrow alley that
A Spot of Body, Without Blood (appeared in NDQ 84.1/2) Bibhu Padhi A body lies on a road in the north, under fog and winter. A hazy picture of mice scampering away onto the road from under its thin sheet of helplessness, is all there is, except a sheer white
Neither Here nor There: Fluid Identities and Exile in Jesús Díaz’s Dime algo sobre Cuba (Tell Me Something About Cuba) (published in NDQ 84.1/2) Patricia Catoira With the renewal of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States under the Obama Administration, travel restrictions to the island have also begun to ease,
Remembering Sunny Acres (published in NDQ 84.1/2) Gulchin Ergun The first day of fourth grade came with a new bus driver wearing a baseball jacket and thick-rimmed glasses that slid down the sweat on her nose when we told her she took us to the wrong school. By the time
No. The Car Wasn’t Actually on Fire: Understanding Communication in Southern Oman (published in NDQ 84.1/2) Marielle Risse The patience and tolerance to live harmoniously in an unfamiliar culture; the fortitude to be content with less than comfortable circumstances for prolonged periods; an understanding of and sympathy with a foreign
Calls to Dabaab (published in NDQ 84.1/2) Yahya Frederickson Fargo, North Dakota Sharif’s wife points me to the diwan, where Sharif and several other men sit on the floor around a phone. I say salaam, shake hands, offer condolences for the relative who died. There’s a tap on the doorjamb—the
Roots, History, and the Possibility of Coexistence: Horizontal and Vertical Consciousness in Amin Maalouf’s Ports of Call (published in NDQ 84.1/2) M. Önder Göncüoğlu Introduction A Lebanese journalist and novelist born in 1949, Amin Maalouf is a person of multiple identities. Like most of his fictional characters, he is formed by
Migrants, Refugees, and Games of Othering: An Eastern European Perspective (published in NDQ 84.1/2) Daniela Koleva At the 2016 Modern Language Association (MLA) convention in Austin, Texas, along with sessions addressing my professional interests of African-American and American literature, I was drawn to presentations on travel, migration, and border crossing.
Borderlines: Accounts Paid, Accounts Due (published in NDQ 84.1/2) Lucy Ganje This piece portrays the movement of two families, both caught up in transnational border policies. Transnational borders within the United States of America are crossed daily—no need for a passport, no luggage or car searches, no checkpoint questions, at
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