Summer 2020

Summer 2020 cover image

Volume 108, No. 2
Summer 2020
The Yale Review

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Cover: Phoebe Helander, Composition, 2018.

Table of Contents

Nonfiction

Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

I Can’t Sleep

After days of witnessing racial violence, respite is no longer a given
Emily Bernard
June 15, 2020
The author with her brother, 1999.
Essays

After My Brother

Finding the language of loss
Brianna Zimmerman
June 1, 2020
Still from the film Atlantics, 2019.
Film

In the Atmosphere

In Mati Diop’s Atlantics, every breath takes in the evaporated substance of history
Lindsay Turner
June 1, 2020
Abstract geometric image.
Books

Speech Acts

Eunice de Souza, a post-Independence Indian poet, explores the glitches in poetic voicing
Vidyan Ravinthiran
June 1, 2020
Photograph of clock at Grand Central Station. Robert Hoge / Creative Commons
Essays

Temps

The law of entropy and life as a fill-in employee, and girlfriend
Victoria Kornick
June 1, 2020
Dandelion seeds attached to stem.
Books

The Unthinkable

How do you put into words the boundless pain of losing a child?
David L. Ulin
June 1, 2020
A Black woman raises her fist at a protest against police violence. Joyce by Miki J / Creative Commons
Essays

The Uses of Memory

Ecstasy in the midst of struggle
Roger Reeves
June 1, 2020
Tove Jansson at her desk. ©Eva Konikoff/Moomin Characteers™
Books

Tove Jansson’s Genius

The radical imagination that built the visionary world of the Moomins
Evan James
June 1, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

The Profound Horror of the Mass Grave

If funerals show a society’s endurance, ours is coming apart
Kathryn Lofton
May 19, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Sirenland

The crisis in New York City
Briallen Hopper
April 8, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Passing through Danger

Finding words for this pandemic in Inupiaq
Joan Naviyuk Kane
April 3, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Cannon Fodder

A doctor on the front lines
Laura Kolbe
March 27, 2020

Fiction

A crowd of statues. Robert Dimov / Creative Commons
Pandemic Files

Do You Know Alex Oreille

Katie Kitamura
June 1, 2020
Bard at night. Marc Moss / Creative Commons
Fiction

Short Swoop, Long Line

Andrew Martin
June 1, 2020

Poetry

Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Trading Riffs to Slay Monsters

From a new collaboration on life under COVID-19
Yusef Komunyakaa
and
Laren McClung
June 12, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

After the Apocalypse

Ama Codjoe
June 4, 2020
László Moholy-Nagy. Courtesy Rijksmusuem, Amsterdam.
Poetry

After Three Years

Jeffrey Gray
June 1, 2020
Courtesy The J. Paul Getty Museum.
Poetry

Appointment

Dana Levin
June 1, 2020
Watercolor of river grasses by Kamisaka Sekka. Courtesy Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Poetry

At the Edge of Mind

Adriana Socoski
June 1, 2020
A night scene in Venice. Arthur B. Charles. Courtesy The Smithsonian.
Poetry

Blue Shift

Fady Joudah
June 1, 2020
Black and white image of nuts emerging from their casing. C. Dietrich. Courtesy Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Poetry

From The Math Campers

Dan Chiasson
June 1, 2020
Cloud study. Simon Dennis. Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Poetry

German Cities

Richie Hofmann
June 1, 2020
J. M. Kearns / Creative Commons
Poetry

Last Air

Jeffrey Gray
June 1, 2020
Head of a cleric from a tomb effigy. France, 1450-1460, Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Poetry

Looking at Medieval Art

Richie Hofmann
June 1, 2020
Ball of twine, c. 1590 - c. 1596. From The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Poetry

Looking Beneath the Sentence’s Wing; 1989

Wendy Xu
June 1, 2020
Decorative box. Louis Comfort Tiffany. Courtesy The Smithsonian.
Poetry

Rilke Poem

Richie Hofmann
June 1, 2020
Watercolor of sunset. George Elbert Burr. Courtesy The Smithsonian.
Poetry

The Lord Rejoiced

Adriana Socoski
June 1, 2020
Graffiti of sleeping raccoon with the word "enjoy" written on it. Image: Pearl Pirie / Creative Commons
Poetry

This Is What Survival Looks Like

Jane Wong
June 1, 2020
Painting of a bridge in Paris. Arthur B. Carles. Courtesy The Smithsonian.
Poetry

Trumpet

Emily Fragos
June 1, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Poetry

Spring

Maya C. Popa
May 14, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Wound is the Origin of Wonder

Maya C. Popa
May 14, 2020

Interviews

Key Blue, by Joseph Schillinger, 1934
Interviews

Cathy Park Hong on Minor Feelings

The major weight of minor feelings
Meghan O’Rourke
June 1, 2020

Pandemic Files

Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

Trading Riffs to Slay Monsters

From a new collaboration on life under COVID-19
Yusef Komunyakaa
and
Laren McClung
June 12, 2020
Image of COVID-19 virus. Graphic by Bianca Ibarlucea.
Pandemic Files

After the Apocalypse

Ama Codjoe
June 4, 2020
A crowd of statues. Robert Dimov / Creative Commons
Pandemic Files

Do You Know Alex Oreille

Katie Kitamura
June 1, 2020

Portfolios

A man pouring milk in his eyes
Portfolio

Photographing the George Floyd Protests

Alex Golshani
June 1, 2020

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Featured

Essays

After My Brother

Finding the language of loss
Brianna Zimmerman
Essays

The Uses of Memory

Ecstasy in the midst of struggle
Roger Reeves