Jesse Browner is the author of the novels Sing to Me (Little Brown, 2025) The Uncertain Hour and Everything Happens Today, among others, as well as of the memoir How Did I Get Here? He is also the translator of works by Jean Cocteau, Paul Eluard, Rainer Maria Rilke, Matthieu Ricard and other French literary masters. He lives in New York City.
Recommended Bo ... Show More
Today
Shain Shapiro, "This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better" (Watkins Media Limited, 2023)
This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better (Watkins Media Limited, 2023) explores how music can make cities better. This Must Be the Place introduces and examines music's relationship to cities. Not the influence cities have on music, but the powerful impact mus ... Show More
23m 45s
Today
Andrew S. Berish, "Hating Jazz: A History of Its Disparagement, Mockery, and Other Forms of Abuse" (U of Chicago Press, 2025)
Andrew S. Berish. 2025. Hating Jazz: A History of Its Disparagement, Mockery, and Other Forms of Abuse. (U of Chicago Press, 2025) Some good words from the inside flap: “ A deep dive into the meaning behind the hatred of jazz.A rock guitarist plays four notes in front of one tho ... Show More
1h 16m
Today
Natalie Lim, "Elegy for Opportunity" (Buckrider Books, 2025)
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Vancouver poet Natalie Lim about her debut poetry collection, Elegy for Opportunity (Wolsak & Wynn/Buckrider Books, 2025). In this collection, Natalie Lim asks: How do we go on living and loving in a time of overlapping crises? ... Show More
45m 2s
Aug 2024
Iman Mersal, "Traces of Enayat" (Transit Books, 2023)
Traces of Enayat (Transit Books, 2023) is a work of creative nonfiction tracing the mysterious life and erasure of Egyptian literature’s tragic heroine. It begins in Cairo, 1963. Four years before her lone novel is finally published, the writer Enayat al-Zayyat takes her own life ... Show More
1h 3m
Apr 4
Short Stories from Arab Cities | Exploring Urban Narratives With the Co-Editors of "Mudun" Reem Khorshid & Faris Bseiso
In this episode of Ehkili, we speak with Reem Khorshid and Faris Bseiso about their literary project Mudun, published by Kaph Books and supported by the Barjeel Art Foundation. They trace the origins of this anthology of short stories about Arab cities, which began as a pandemic ... Show More
48m 37s
Feb 2025
Sumūd: Poetry, Art, Steadfastness, and Joy
In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Hilary Rantisi speaks with Malu Halasa and Jordan Elgrably, editors of the new book Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader. They discuss the meaning of sumūd to different people -- how it encompasses steadfastness, coping with ongoing op ... Show More
38m 14s
May 2024
Huda Fakhreddine on Hiba Abu Nada ("Pull Yourself Together")
What can a poem do in the face of calamity? This was an extraordinary conversation. Huda Fakhreddine joins the podcast to discuss "Pull Yourself Together," a poem that Huda has translated into English and that was written by the Palestinian poet, novelist, and educator Hiba Abu N ... Show More
1h 30m
Aug 2024
1188: In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, with special guest adrienne maree brown
Today’s poem is In Jerusalem by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah, with special guest adrienne maree brown. Through her writing, which includes short- and long-form fiction, nonfiction, spells, tarot decks and poetry; her music, which includes songwriting, singing and im ... Show More
7m 58s
Dec 2024
665 Keats's Great Odes (with Anahid Nersessian) [Ad-Free Encore Edition]
In 1819, John Keats quit his job as an assistant surgeon, abandoned an epic poem he was writing, and focused his poetic energies on shorter works. What followed was one of the most fertile periods in the history of poetry, as in a few months' time Keats completed six masterpieces ... Show More
1h 8m