When Meena Kandasamy speaks about the contemporary issues of her native India, she incisively reveals the societal assumptions that assign specific roles to people based on caste or gender. When she turns her attention to the past, she deconstructs the heroes. She uses her poetry like a scalpel to dismantle stereotypes.

Kandasamy’s work articulates the voice of the Dalits, the people at the lowest rung of India’s ancient caste system. Despite the fact that the Indian constitution abolished this system, the Dalits still face widespread discrimination.

Kandasamy’s second book of poetry, Ms. Militancy was published by Navayana Press in November last year and retells Hindu and Tamil myths from a feminist and anti-caste perspective.

Read Sampsonia Way interview with Meena Kandasamy.

Photo: Laura Mustio

Gary Shteyngart is an American writer born in Leningrad, USSR, in 1972. Much of his work is satirical and relies on the invention of elaborately fictitious, yet somehow familiar, places and times. His novels include The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story.

John Allison, an associate editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, interviewed Shteyngart in one of City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s houses just before the author read excerpts from Super Sad True Love Story to 160 people gathered under a tent on Sampsonia Way.

Super Sad True Love Story is a disturbing, funny, and believable satire of the near future, where books have no place in a hyper-technological society. In this conversation, consequentially, Shyteyngart quips on the tyranny of technological devices and the slowness of the United States in the world’s technology race. Like the many facets of Super Sad True Love Story‘s alternate future, the conversation–sprinkled with dark humor–turned to unexpected topics like pornography, immortality, and Russia.

There’s so much going on in Super Sad True Love Story—the end of America, the death of reading, the love-conquers-all story, the urge to live forever, the worship of youth. The theme of procreation pops up early on and continues subtly. So I have to ask: What do you think about kids? Do you like kids?

I like kids … I met some the other day. They’re small. I don’t have any. I have dachshunds.

Some people have perceived the book as anti-youth, but I love youth. It’s not their fault that they’re turning into something different. Society is at fault.

So I worry for children, not just in the sense that corporations are contributing to their illiteracy, but in the sense that physically it’s not going to be a very pleasant planet to live on. So, sorry youth. But I had a great time. I read, I live in a fairly temperate climate, so stuff is good.

Can you see having children as a stab at immortality?

Sure. There’s a line in the novel—there’s very few women who take a crack at the Post-Human Services because they see the ability to have children as a kind of continuation. But that’s kind of weak for me, the idea that one lives on forever through children. The first pages of the book go through that line, “I believe children are the future.” I tend not to say that I’m going to die eventually for my children. 

Lenny [the book's 39 year-old co-protagonist] probes philosophically in various ways at trying to live forever and discovers that nothing ever really works out. Death is inevitable.

Have you read The Shallows by Nicholas Carr [subtitled “What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains”]?

I read that after I read Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near and found it to be very complementary reading material, especially in the sense that it’s our brains being re-ordered, and one of the things we can’t do is to concentrate on long-form text. The book kind of points fingers, but we are passively being rewired on a biological level. 

Our brains are not going to be the same brains that existed. And obviously our brains change quite a bit, but this is a humongous leap in a very short amount of time. I can’t concentrate. It’s hard, I do most of my reading on an airplane, because that’s when I’m captive. Or on the subway. There’s nothing better to do.

Can you carve out time at home?

It’s so hard. It’s very hard to get people to buy a book or read a book, so I’m constantly promoting.

So when you aren’t writing, you’re on tour.

I mean, it takes what, three years to write a book? But it takes about a year and a half to promote it worldwide. Can you imagine? It used to be people would say, “Oh it’s a book, now I’m gonna get it!” And now it’s like you have to go to Akron and be like, come on. Buy it. BUY IT! You know you want it! Hmm? Hmm?

And you’re on Facebook. I “Liked” you yesterday.

Thank you. People are good, they’re very responsive on there.

And so are you.

Well, you gotta be.

Do you enjoy that?

Yeah. Well, you know, at this point, if you enter the [digital] world, there’s no going back. The Internet is a harsh mistress. 

And the iTelephone? Oh my God. My baby. It was a present in 2006, or 2007. And then when I got it turned on, [my life] just went out the window. 

See this Hudson Valley T-shirt I’m wearing? I go up to the Hudson Valley to get a reprieve. AT&T is so bad up there.

And is there where you do the bulk of your writing?

A lot of Super Sad was written there. I write very well in Italy for some reason, so a lot of Super Sad was written there too. There’re a lot of castles owned by various royalty in Italy that I live in for a while. A huge part of that novel was also written in Olympia.

You live in Manhattan now?

Yes. But I can’t concentrate in Manhattan. Ugh, so hard. Manhattan’s like a giant Internet device.

Do you feel like you’re reporting when you’re in Manhattan?

I used to take notes in a cab and I enjoyed looking out the window, seeing the world at this level. But now there’s always this screen in front of you in Manhattan cabs. You can’t turn it off, as well as you may try. But at the same time that I’m hitting the off button, listening to some jabber on the TV, I’ve got my own iPhone out and I’m looking at that. It’s like the screens are everywhere. The screens are winning.

Super Sad completes a circle: the post-literate future yields another kind of future. So you’re not painting us into a dark corner. Maybe you see another kind of literacy?

The interesting thing about Eunice’s [the book's other protagonist, a 24 year old Korean American] communication is that she’s very literate. Or as literate as one gets with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. But in the future there are no long-term sentences. There’s no subject and predicate. It’s all little bursts of data. But Lenny and Noah still speak in pretentious sentences. And Eunice is very literate, so you know, there were some concessions to the fact that hey, it’s a novel, it can’t just be little bursts of information.

Photo: Laura Mustio

And forgive me for prying even more. Are you in a relationship with a Korean-American woman?

Oh sure, yeah. I went to Stuyvesant High School. All I know are Koreans. My mentor is Korean, [the writer] Chang-rae Lee. My best friends are Korean. Surrounded by Koreans.

And no backlash from them?

Surprisingly no. No backlash. I experienced backlash in Russia itself. But not from Russian-Jews here, or from Jews in general. My father would have said it wouldn’t be good for the Jews. [I never said it was going to be good] for anybody.

Do you involve yourself with Russian affairs?

Russia doesn’t really censor writers now because they don’t matter as much as they used to. That’s the whole thing. They don’t allow opposition TV to exist. There is one radio station that is an alternative station, but the regime is fine with it—let a million intellectuals listen to it and then we’ll see if we have freedom of the press. It’s the same with newspapers; let a few thousand people here read it. But TV, as they say, where real opinions are made, is heavily censored and controlled.

Are you outraged about that? Do you feel like you’re on a mission to do something about it?

Nothing ever changes in Russia. The worst feudalism, the worst socialism, and now the worst turbo-capitalism—it’s just one nightmare after another. What are you going to do? That is the status quo. There’s a restaurant called 1913 and I said, “Why’s your name 1913?” And the owner said that was the only good year in Russian history.

What about America? Are we lost?

You know, some nations rise and fall, and I think this country’s just very tired now. This country’s worked its ass off for a very long time. The spirit is sort of out of us: we’re gonna climb every mountain. The immigrants still have it, but the population in general—I know of kids who will never work as hard I worked, and why would they? Other nations just want it more than we do now. China and India are in such poverty and they see a way out and they’re gonna hustle.

So are you saying you’ve lost the immigrant drive?

Well, I think I sort of tuned out for about 10 years, took it really easy, got high a lot, partied like a University of Pittsburgh student on spring break, Daytona Beach, partied hardy for 10 years of my life. But then that instinct to work hard again took over, and the last 12 years have been a lot of work.

You went to Oberlin.

I was so stoned. I worked fairly hard there—I think I majored in The Beatles, or something. Advanced Ringo studies.

Were your parents disappointed that you went to Oberlin?

No, they were disappointed when I got out of Oberlin. Had hair down to my ass, you know. Stoned. Worked as a paralegal for a year and I was like nuh-uh, I’m not going to do law. That was a big shock to them. Every month I’d get a tickler from one grad school or another to apply—urban planning, masters in public administration. I was lost, but it’s all right. That was my 20s.

I think post-college is even a designated demographic now.

Well now it lasts until like 43! The way it’s structured now, there’s no jobs. It could be interesting to see what the next generation will be like without the cushion of being the world’s No. 1 nation economically, and pop-culturally, and in so many other ways. It’s going to be different for them. Good luck, kids.

In 2008, did you have apocalyptic visions of America collapsing?

I started writing Super Sad in 2006, so I heard about the collapse of banking and the auto industry, and by 2008 it was all coming true. Things were getting worse and worse and worse. But what’s interesting is that the finance people really landed on their feet. Society’s structured that way. 

I thought Russia would become more and more like America as the years went on after the fall of communism. But America became more and more like Russia as the years went on. We had this erasure of the middle class, the growth of a very small group of people who were in charge, and very little advancement from a group of people who, from the beginning, were not judged to be slated for that kind of success. We’re slowly turning into a developing country. 

And really developing because of our technology. As much as I dislike the Internet and what it’s done to my attention span, I wish it was faster. Korea’s [internet connection] is two and a half times faster.

Everyone says the Internet is just a porn delivery system.

Well, I mean, it’s a major … that’s what it’s there for. Information and porn.

The numbing effect. In Super Sad, I really like the way you capture the numbing of sex and desire. Those clothing lines: JuicyPussy, AssLuxury. Eunice’s approach to sex is so perfunctory. She calls it “Magic Pussy Time.”

There’s an urge for closeness, but she doesn’t have the capacity to articulate it. She and a friend were talking about watching a video, “Old Man Spunkers,” in kindergarten. You know, where do you go from there?

How much of the numbness that comes from these devices is coming from people watching porn on them?

There’s a level of being comfortable with sitting there by yourself and indulging in these fantasies and it reminds of you of how difficult actual life is and relationships are. You know, there’s that famous case of the couple in Korea, the very wired society, who had this online game where you raise a kid, but they also had a [real] kid, and they were so busy playing this online game that their kid starved to death. And that’s the mentality. Virtual life has fewer consequences.

Is technology eating us alive?

Technology can’t fix all of our problems. It can fix some problems, but it creates other problems. Why do we have these devices? To save labor, to have time to relax and enjoy things. But that’s not how it works at all. It sucks us into a world where we’re working harder and harder. The devices own us, not the other way around. We are enslaved to technology.

Up in Hudson I see second-home owners who are quite wealthy. They’re older, and they’re sitting around a table talking about technology, talking about the next killer app—not grandchildren, or the book they’ve just read.

So Lenny hopes to live to see the future.

Yeah, he takes Lipitor. Just 20 grams a day can change your life.

Yeah, but the future’s always happening.

There’s no present left. We’re living in the future. This is the future. I have a device upstairs that can do just about anything, like magic.

Can it write a book?

Yeah, I mean, I don’t even write these books anymore, I just outsource it to India, give them the basic plot. “Yeah. I’d like a love story, sad and true, and make it super.” “Super? Make it 8,000 more rupees please.”

[Pauses as he hears the children of Khet Mar, City of Asylum/Pittsburgh writer-in-residence, speaking through a megaphone, promoting his reading in the next hour]

This is weird, hearing children playing outside. I hear their voices. I haven’t heard a child’s voice in so long. We don’t really have them in Manhattan. It does become odd to have children and procreate.

If I recall correctly, David Foster Wallace, Richard Ford and Jonathan Franzen are writers who declared they wouldn’t have children, for various reasons including that they were too dedicated to their art.

Well, I wouldn’t look at it that way. I mean, if you have a child, you just give it to someone to take care of—20 nannies per child, I don’t know. It would be good material. I find it very helpful to be surrounded by young people. By young I mean in their 20s. It’d be interesting to see a 5-year-old. What are their political views?

Watch Slideshow: Gary Shteyngart reads and trades quips with audience

Watch Video: Q&A with Gary Shteyngart

Read Gary Shteyngart wins Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

Watch Video: Gary Shteyngart Reads From Super Sad True Love Story

Left: Aung San Suu Kyi. Right: Michelle Yeoh. Photo: filmofilia.com

Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng, who stars as Aung San Suu Kyi in Luc Besson’s film The Lady was deported by the authorities in Yangoon, Burma last Wednesday.

The movie takes its title from Aung San Suu Kyi’s nickname and focuses on the love story between the Nobel prize-winning democracy campaigner and her husband, British academic Michael Aris.

The couple’s unwavering devotion to one another as well as to their cause has caused fascination. They married in 1972 in the UK and had two sons. An academic and a lecturer in Asian history, Dr. Aris helped establish a Tibetan and Himalayan Studies center at Oxford and campaigned tirelessly alongside his wife for democracy. He died of cancer on his 53rd birthday in 1999 and hadn’t seen his wife since 1995 because the Burmese government refused to grant him a visa.

According to The Guardian, Yeoh visited Burma for the first time last December and met Suu Kyi in person. She told reporters in Hong Kong, “It’s important for me that people know her story because unfortunately I think a lot of people have forgotten or don’t really understand what was going on because it’s been 20 years.”

The former Miss Malaysia is an international action star. She rose to fame after starring as a Chinese spy in the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies,” as well as Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Here is the official synopsis of The Lady from EuropaCorp, translated from French:

The Lady is an extraordinary love story of a man, Michael Aris, and above all an exceptional woman, Aung San Suu Kyi, who will sacrifice her own happiness for that of her people.

The Lady is an original screenplay by Rebecca Frayn, written after three years of research and interviews with Aung San Suu Kyi’s entourage, which allowed her to reconstitute for the first time ever the real story of Burma’s national heroine.

Learn more about Michelle Yeoh’s deportation from Burma.

Yusef Komunyakaa’s The Chameleon Couch, inhabits many musics: the delicate hymn in the book’s opening “Canticle,” the dark blues of a East Village club, and the haunting sound of a Japanese flute. In order to conjure these melodies and rhythms, Komunyakaa takes his poems through endless revisions, listening for “the music, that which comes from the body as opposed to that abstract mental space.”

In this video created by Sampsonia Way magazine and published also by Rattapallax, Komunyakaa describes his revision process, talks about the importance of silence in poetry, and dispenses advice for young poets.

Elizabeth Hoover interviewed Komunyakaa in City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s House Poem. Komunyakaa stayed in the House Poem while he was in Pittsburgh for COA/P’s Jazz Poetry concert.

Related

Watch Yusef Komunyakaa on Racism as a Mental Illness

Read Songs of Rage and Tenderness: The Poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa …

On June 12, 2011, Tsering Woeser posted details on her blog about Tibetan writers and teachers who have been arrested or imprisoned since 2008 by authorities in Sichuan province. Woeser provides photographs about the writers along with details that were translated to English by the blog High Peaks Pure Earth on June 14. The blogpost appeals for international support for the intellectuals and cultural figures in Tibet who have been affected by recent crackdowns on freedom of expression. Read more about Woeser in Issue 7 of Sampsonia Way.

“Documenting 10 Tibetan Writers and Teachers Arrested, Detained or Sentenced By Sichuan Local Authorities”

By Tsering Woeser

This is a documentation that is very difficult to write.

Because these Tibetan writers and teachers were arrested in secret, detained in secret and sentenced in secret, their current status is shrouded in darkness and even their close relatives and friends do not know any details.

Recently, media reported the sentencing of writer Tashi Rabten (pen name: Theurang) to 4 years in prison. On June 2, Tashi Rabten’s relatives received notice that Sichuan Province, Ngaba Prefecture’s Intermediate Law Court sentenced him “on suspicion of inciting separatism”.

Tashi Rabten of Dzoege County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, is now 25 years old. He graduated from North-West University for Nationalities and edited the Tibetan language journal “Shar Dungri” (where various Tibetan intellectuals bravely expressed the truth and their ideas) and he also published a Tibetan language documentation of the uprising in Tibet in 2008 “Written in Blood”. In 2009 he was detained. On April 6, 2010, he was arrested again and held until the end of the year in Ngaba Prefecture’s Barkham County Detention Centre.

What the outside world doesn’t know is that at the same time Tashi Rabten was sentenced this June, there are others who have been sent to prison:

Choephel, from Dzoege County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, Teacher at Ngaba Prefecture Middle School for Nationalities, Sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Tamey, from Ngaba County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, Masters graduate from North West University for Nationalities, Teacher at Ngaba Prefecture’s Middle School for Nationalities, sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison.

(Unfortunately I can’t find their photos at the moment)

The outside world also has no idea that in May this year, there were three other teachers who were handed down prison sentences by the Ngaba Prefecture People’s Intermediate Court:

Kirti Kyab: from Dzoege County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, Graduate from North West University for Nationalities, teacher at Ngaba Prefecture’s Middle School for Nationalities, sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Sonam: from Dzoege Country, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, teacher at Ngaba Prefecture’s Middle School for Nationalities, sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Tohlha: Tibetan from Qinghai (details of place of origin are unclear), teacher at Ngaba Prefecture’s Middle School for Nationalities, sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison. **June 16, 2011 update on Tohlha via Woeser’s Twitter**: Real name: Dorje Tsering  (Tohlha is an alias), from Kazhur Township, Dowi County, Qinghai Province, graduate of Qinghai University for Nationalities, sentenced in May 2011.

(Unfortunately I can’t find their photos at the moment)

Additionally, due to their writings about the Tibetan protests of 2008, three writers who were sentenced to prison terms on December 30, 2010 by Sichuan Province’s Ngaba Prefecture Intermediate People’s Court (this has been reported by media) are:

Jangtse Dhonkho, (Official name on his ID: Rongke, Pen name: Nyen): Born in 1978, from Kyungchu County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, working for Kyungchu County local office for historical affairs. Member of Sichuan Province Writers Association, published a collection of poetry, recipient of many Tibetan Literary Awards. Sentenced to 4 years in prison.

Bhudha, (Pen Name: Buddha): Born in 1979, from Ngaba County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, graduated with a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Chongqing University, working in the hospital in the town of Barma in Ngaba County, poet, editor of Tibetan language periodical “Modern Self”. Sentenced to 4 years in prison.

Kelsang Jinpa, (Pen name: Garmi): Born in 1977, from Labrang, Kanlho Prefecture, Gansu Province, was living in Ngaba County doing business, poet, editor of Tibetan language periodical “Modern Self”. Sentenced to 3 years in prison.

At the moment, there is a writer and teacher facing imminent sentencing:

Dawa: from Ngaba County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, a teacher at Ngaba County Middle School for Nationalities. Founder of monthly Tibetan language periodical “Modern Self”. Also an editor and writer. Arrested on October 1 2010, currently held at Jinchuan County Detention Centre, no family visits are allowed, denied legal representation.

Also, on my blog I have documented several Tibetan writers and authors who have been sentenced:

Kunchok Tsephel, from Machu County, Kanlho Prefecture, Gansu Province, founder of the first Tibetan literature website inside China. Sentenced to 15 years in prison in November 2009.  (On the photo, Kunchok Tsephel is on the right hand side)

Kunga Tsayang (Pen name: Gangnyi), from Golok Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Photographer for Golok Nyenpo Yurtse Association of Environmental Protection. Sentenced to 5 years in prison in November 2009. (On the photo, Kunga Tsayang is on the left hand side)

Khang Kunchok, from Ngaba County, Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, studied at Ngaba Prefecture Barkham Nationalities Teacher’s College, co-founder of the Barkham Nationalities Teacher’s College magazine “Nanjia”, had previously edited “Kangsel Metok”, the Kirti monastery magazine. On the evening of March 20, 2008, he and a number of students were detained when protesting against the killing of Tibetans by security forces. They were sentenced to two years in prison.

These writers and teachers have all been detained for documenting, discussing and reflecting on the uprising in Tibet in 2008, the year of the Earth Mouse. Clearly the local authorities’ oppression of Tibetans has already spread from the ordinary masses to the elite. There are many victims, the punishments are cruel and it is difficult for them to receive legal assistance or fair judicial proceedings. From what is known, the real number of oppressed Tibetan elites is far greater than the number made public.

Some of the Tibetan elites’ troubles are a direct result of the authorities’ intentional politicization of events. These Tibetans aimed to protect their culture and their environment. However, their actions led to retaliation when they encountered corrupt local government officials. Officials everywhere know the dark art of political tricks very well and use these opportunities to repress “separatists.” They link Tibetans dedicated to social affairs with politics because they want to destroy them.

We must pay attention to local authorities cracking down on the Tibetan elite. The crisis we face is not just political and economic. A much bigger crisis is the destruction of our culture. It is not just the old buildings in Lhasa that have been destroyed. Many talented and knowledgeable men and women are being intentionally eliminated. This is far more terrible than other forms of destruction.

I sincerely appeal to international media, International PEN and international human rights organizations for concern, support, and help.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been detained for 15 years by Burma’s ruling military junta, testified before a Congressional committee via videotape on Wednesday June 22 on the recent sham elections and current conditions in the Southeast Asia nation. U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL), who chaired the hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, arranged for Aung San Suu Kyi’s first-ever Congressional testimony and posted it on his YouTube site for all to see.

The transcript below was taken from U.S. Campaign for Burma’s website:

Any statement made before a committee of the United States Congress must start with a few words, however brief; of appreciation for all that you and your colleagues have done for the cause of democracy in Burma over the last two decades. We are very appreciative and we believe that you will continue to do whatever you can to help us in the future as well.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Told from eight different points of view, Christos Tsiolkas‘ The Slap begins at a barbecue in a Melbourne suburb when a man loses his temper and smacks a child. The parents take the man to court. The act triggers a series of repercussions in the lives of the people who witness the event, causing them to reassess their values, expectations, and desires. Tsiolkas fills in the back-stories of his diverse cast of characters while exploring the changing lifestyle of Australia’s middle-class. He also touches on multi-culturalism, homophobia, and infidelity. Winner of the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap is haunting rumination on contemporary family life.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. Copyright © 2008 by Christos Tsiolkas. Used by permission of Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Click here to purchase a copy of The Slap.

Related Articles

Read an interview with Christos Tsiolkas

Watch a video of Tsiolkas reading from The Slap at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh

Last week Sampsonia Way‘s posted a revealing conversation with Leena Manimekalai, an Indian engineer who abandoned her profession to act, film and write.

Manimekalai, who already has published three books of poetry, considers herself an evolving poet. Her first Tamil poetry anthology Otraiyilaiyena (As a Single Leaf) has seen three editions so far. Her second book, Ulagin Azhagiya Muthal Penn (The First Beautiful Woman in the World), has provoked mixed reactions: It received the Iyal Poetry Award for 2009, a call for its banning by Hindu Makkal Katchi, a Hindu People’s Party, and repressive attacks from “some ultra left fanatics.” Her third poetry collection Parathaiyarul Raani (Queen of Sluts) has just been released.

Hindu Makkal Katchi has filed a case against the author on the grounds that she is distributing essentially pornographic material.

“Obviously, my poetry is dangerous to religious and ideologically fanatic minds. Language is my first enemy; its norms, design, and usage are controlled by the dominant patriarchy,” said Manimekalai.

The following poems are reprinted with permission from the author and from the translator, Rajaram Brammarajan.

What do you want?

Finally when I met him
He happened to be a fish
In my ocean he swam
With millions of scales
Never once did he
Get caught in my fingers.
Whenever he plays the brown blue serpent gourd
And convulsions die down
He drinks my spirit.
In his thirst
I kept drowning
Whenever I tried to grab
His light-ball face
with dark mossy lips
he slipped away
With the ease of a snake.
Asked him to let me know at least
Which part of my body he liked
He snatched my breasts
And disappeared.
Now I am scorching
Like a desert.

The Ocean that exceeded the tongue

Like a bamboo forest
My lust rattles.
The one who lit a fire with wetness
Had gone leaving behind his tongue
Whether it is a storm
Or rain
Or infernal fire
The air is befuddled.
In the embrace
Giant waves shattered like
Magical birds
In the scream of a cruel voice
The earth turned musical.
The one who swallowed the ocean
flutters like a butterfly.
The play continues.

Read Sampsonia Way’s interview with Leena Manimekalai

Award-winning poet and University of Pittsburgh professor Lynn Emanuel describes her newest collection of poetry, Noose and Hook, as one that “summons America before the bench.” In this book, Emanuel explores America’s wars, food, poetry, painting, death—and oh yes, dogs—with her unique brand of wry humor and lyrical grace.

Read Sampsonia Way‘s interview with Lynn Emanuel and Terrance Hayes.

HANG DOGG from Noose and Hook, by Lynn Emanuel, © 2010. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

CLICK HERE to purchase a copy of Noose and Hook.

• Shteyngart entertains the audience with a comical reading of his novel

   

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  He quipped at one point: “Nobody really writes books in North America anymore, it’s all outsourced to India.” Photo: Renee Rosensteel

• Audience member Richard Thomas watches the reading

   

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  “It was great to be outside, under the tent,” Thomas said. “He was a real crowd pleaser.” Photo: Renee Rosensteel

• Moderator Eric Shiner converses with Shteyngart

   

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  Shiner is the acting director of The Andy Warhol Museum. Photo: Renee Rosensteel

• Sylvia Rhor (front, far left) enjoying the reading

   

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  “I hadn't read his new book before attending the event, and now I definitely will — though I really wish Gary Shteyngart could read it aloud to me instead,” she said. Photo: Renee Rosensteel

• Gary Shteyngart and Eric Shiner

   

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  hold up City of Asylum/Pittsburgh T-shirts provided by Henry Reese, the organization’s founder (far right). Photo: Renee Rosensteel

• Sheila Washington pages through Shteyngart’s new book

   

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  “I enjoyed the author's humor, and I thought the format [of the event] worked extremely well,” she said. Photo: Renee Rosensteel

• Shteyngart in conversation with Sampsonia Way preceding the reading.

   

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  Photo: Laura Mustio

On May 10, 2011, Russian-American writer Gary Shteyngart read excerpts from his novel Super Sad True Love Story to roughly 160 people gathered under a tent on Sampsonia Way.

In tribute to the book’s ubiquitous äppäräti — iPhone-esque devices that stream videos, applications and even users’ thoughts — the event was bookended by two lighthearted exercises in social media: For 10 to 15 minutes preceding the reading, moderator Eric Shiner asked Shteyngart questions via Twitter; afterwards, the audiences’ Q&A employed the same technique.

Watch a video of the event, which was sponsored by City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.

Read about Gary Shteyngart’s recent award