Mandana Chaffa

1 month ago | chireviewofbooks.com | Mandana Chaffa

“Absence • behind me, • absence in • front of me • forever reaching at • a ghost.”Primordial,  the rich and rewarding new collection by Mai Der Vang, is deeply engaged with the absence—and presence—of a genus, a people, a language, and life itself. By focusing on Saola, a spindle-horned, critically-endangered, and rarely-witnessed mammal, Vang explores the fate of the genus with that of Hmong people, each impacted by generational and environmental violence, and reclaims their agency.

1 month ago | wordswithoutborders.org | Alex Tan |Tobias Carroll |Mandana Chaffa |Rebecca Hussey

A chronicler of the chimeric, the Egyptian writer Mansoura Ez Eldin has been celebrated in the Arab world for her feverish, fanciful plots. To read her feels like opening one’s eyes into a fugue state, a landscape in which the parameters of reality seem just slightly off-kilter. The air, in her universe, is always abuzz with ethereal presences and diaphanous bodies, anticipating the propitious moment for revelation.

2 months ago | wordswithoutborders.org | Tobias Carroll |Mandana Chaffa |Rebecca Hussey |Alina Stefanescu

From Schaffner Press | The Lives and Deaths of Véronique Bangoura by Tierno Monénembo, translated from the French by Ryan Chamberlain | Fiction | 240 pages | ISBN 9781639640591 | US$17.95 What the publisher says: “In this gripping novel set in both French Guinea and Paris, award-winning author (The King of Kahel) Tierno Monénembo explores themes of international exile, sexual abuse, generational trauma, and repressed memory of a people and country under the regime of dictator Sekou Toure from...

2 months ago | wordswithoutborders.org | Tobias Carroll |Mandana Chaffa |Rebecca Hussey |Alina Stefanescu

Now in its third year, the National Book Critics Circle’s Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize celebrates a thrilling span of books, across genres, languages, countries of origin, and publishers. During the course of 2024, our panel—a combination of member critics and several board members—deliberated over hundreds of books, resulting in the following shortlist. It’s an honor to present our judges’ appreciations for our six finalists.

Mar 3, 2025 | chireviewofbooks.com | Mandana Chaffa

Even in an era of multi-hyphenates, Chicago-native Dr. Eve L. Ewing’s achievements are exemplary: scholar, educator, cultural organizer, poet, playwright and comic book author to name a few. Her newest project is equally striking. Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, is a critical investigation of the ways the U.S. school system engenders racial inequality and social hierarchies.