“The threat that translation should pose is the kind good comedy poses—it punches up, not laterally or downwards. Translation should disturb. It should alarm. It is essential, in fact, that it distress, especially the powers that keep trying to tell us a text is fixed . . .”

Staff reader Meera Vijayann talks with NER 47.1 author Hasanthika Sirisena about rethinking relationships, the differences between public and private sex, and the research that led to her essay “Castaway.”

Browse & shop new books by Christopher Kondrich, Nur Turkmani, Amit Majmudar, Ina Cariño, & more.

Editorial intern Regan Olusegun ’26 talks with former NER intern Paulina Choh ‘16 about returning to academia, applying her editorial experience, and the power of hands-on learning.

Featuring three poems by Elyas Alavi, translated by Sholeh Wolpé, & a conversation between Alavi & Wolpé in which they discuss the impact of exile & the lessons that can be learned from displacement, adversity, & fortitude of the spirit.

Staff reader Autumn Mitchell talks with NER 47.1 author Ranbir Sidhu about subjectivity, the racial politics of failure, and rejecting self-commodification in his essay “The Art of Failure.”