July News

A CELEBRATION OF A PUBLIC SPACE NO. 33

Thank you to contributors, readers, subscribers and friends for a fabulous evening of readings, cocktails, and conversation last week at Bar Laika. We're especially grateful to Fiona McCrae, Dani Oliver, Imogen Osborne, and Parker Menzimer for spectacular readings from their pieces. You can find their work in our latest issue, in print and online, here.

A PUBLIC SPACE NO. 33

"With practice you could differentiate the notes. There was a sharp hint of glass. Right there in the center of the stinging mirchi scent. The people took to wearing helmets. They darted indoors quickly. When people are frightened, they get stupid. Cruel." —Riddhi Dastidar, "The Day Came Fat" (A Public Space No. 33)

NEW FROM A PUBLIC SPACE BOOKS

This fall, two remarkable debut collections arrive at A Public Space Books: On Board the Dog Star by Edward McWhinney and The Sun's Point of View by Marzia Grillo, translated from the Italian by Lourdes Contreras and Julia Pelosi-Thorpe. Two gorgeous collections that search the strange yet familiar. Walk as far as the pier, or the border between light and shadow. Stumble home. Available Fall 2026.

KRISTEN GLEASON PRESENTS THE WALLET AND OTHER THEFTS

Kristen Gleason
The Wallet and Other Thefts (Fonograf)
Thursday, July 30, 7:00pm
Community Bookstore (Brooklyn, NY)

Join 2016 Writing Fellow Kristen Gleason for a reading and conversation with A Public Space editor Brigid Hughes to celebrate the publication of The Wallet and Other Thefts (Fonograf) at Community Bookstore. Her debut story collection, The Wallet, explores shame, exile, tourism, masochism, God, and "Nature" in elliptical, mesmerizing prose. Reserve a spot here.

WORKSHOPS

Calvin Gimpelevich
Bodies in Space
Wednesdays, July 8-29, 7:00-9:00pm ET (4 sessions)
Online
What does place mean to one's characters? We'll explore bodies, space, movement, and power from a variety of genres: Gordon Hall on generalized representations of "the body"; Jun'ichirō Tanizaki on shadows and darkness in Japan; and more. Register here.

Chloe Garcia Roberts
Translation as Cosmovision
Mondays, July 13-August 17, 7:00–9:00pm ET (6 sessions)
Online
What strategies can the translator use to recreate the relationship between an author's voice and their language? Practice a cosmological translation approach through the creation of research maps, lexicons, and real-time translator’s notes. Register here.

2026 WEEKEND WRITERS' RETREAT
Regular Registration Deadline: August 15

How can metaphor create plot pathways in the mind of the author? Define the voice of the project? A fecund metaphor recasts a grand societal pitfall, turns the reader's attention to a particular quality in a setting, or creates a startling image. It can also serve as an opening, to the world of a narrative yet to be written. This fall, join author Tracy O'Neill at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park for a workshop on metaphor as an engine for plotting, voice, and character.

Tracy is one of seven award-winning authors, playwrights, and poets who will lead writing workshops at our third annual Weekend Writers' Retreat. From October 8–11, 2026, nurture new work and enjoy bucolic views of the Hudson Valley with Jo Ann Beard, Mary-Beth Hughes, Samantha Hunt, Amitava Kumar, Sondra Loring, Han Ong, Robert Sullivan, Peter Trachtenberg, Ada Zhang, and more. Join us.

PUBLIC ACCESS
This month's Public Access—work from the magazine's archive, made free and open to all—was selected by Berta Coll Bosch and Sam Karagulin, the 2026 Editorial Fellows at A Public Space, in connection. with their current open calls. They're accepting submissions through July 13.

OPEN CALL: IMPENETRABILITY AS A GENERATIVE FORCE
We have been trained to get closer, to go deeper, to reach a point. But what if we celebrate impenetrability? What if we champion those things that cannot be entered, pierced, or understood? What if we treat them as something worth protecting? —Berta Coll Bosch

The White Road by Kelly Link (APS No. 28)
We know that they are monsters because they come at night and they tear us to pieces. But they are also monsters, I think, because we do not understand why they do what they do. Continue reading.

Focus: Japan—America Inverted by Roland Kelts (APS No. 1)
As I learned when I moved to Japan in the late nineties, to ensure a sympathetic smile and a smooth journey from a Tokyo cabbie, you only need to concede that, yes, speaking Japanese is very difficult. The driver will be thrilled to have his nation’s impenetrability verified. Continue reading.

The Night they First Played Monster Eyes by Jonathan Lethem (APS No. 3)
This band’s got something, and some of the something they’ve got is the allure of an enclave at odds within itself and yet impenetrable to others, its members exchanging small gestures of disaffection within their troupe that makes others crave to be included in the fond dissention. Continue reading.

Variations on the Right to Remain Silent by Anne Carson (APS No. 7)
Every translator knows the point where one language cannot be translated into another. [...] But now what if, within this silence, you discover a deeper one—a word that does not intend to be translatable. A word that stops itself. [...] There is something maddeningly attractive about the untranslatable, about a word that goes silent in transit. Continue reading.

Sing, Muse, Wrath by Allen Grossman (APS No. 7)
When we say, “same world,” “same room and persons,” / “same course of life,” we speak approximately. Continue reading.

Strangers by Amy Leach (APS No. 27)
Whereas strangers are all pretty much opaque—you can’t candle their heads like you candle an egg. Animals are opaque like strangers; even jellyfish and glass frogs are opaque like bears; and when their anatomy is gone, they are gone. This is not true of brothers and sisters. Continue reading.

OPEN CALL: MISRECOGNITION
Have you been mistaken for someone else? Did they insist you really were that other person? Like catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and not recognizing yourself, misrecognition can destabilize. The present can contradict the surety of memory. —Sam Karagulin

The Let-Out by Jamel Brinkley (APS No. 28)
But all of a sudden she started walking again, with more quickness and purpose. Her steps were bringing her in the direction she was looking, and it became clear, despite every self-abnegating doubt, that she was walking toward me. Continue reading.

Again It Has Prepared Itself For My Awakening by Patrizia Cavalli (APS No. 19)
translated from the Italian by Jorie Graham
In broad daylight on the other hand I shall mistake them, / I shall not compete with them, / I shall act like it’s nothing… Continue reading.

This Handwriting by Matthew Zapruder (APS No. 8)
Very / small horses attached to invisible reins attached / to facts is how I would describe my thoughts, / but what of my memories. Continue reading.

Trans-Neptunian Object by Suzanne Buffam (APS No. 8)
Facts exist for whole centuries and then suddenly cease. Continue reading.

Compromise by Ada Zhang (APS No. 29)
It was like receiving a new man, a new husband, and to me this was a relief. Continue reading.

ELSEWHERE

Congratulations to APS contributor Lídia Jorge, on receiving the 2026 Austrian State Prize for European Literature. She will be honored at a ceremony at the Salzburg Festival on July 27. Lídia’s story “The Mystery” appeared in A Public Space No. 28.

First, a new solo work by APS contributor Kate Walbert, debuts at the Nantucket Performing Arts Center this August. Two-time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey stars as Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress. Kate’s story “Radical Feminists” appeared in A Public Space No. 18.

From June 27 to August 22, APS contributor Catherine Pierce is hosting eight weeks of prompts, reflections to cultivate focus and attention. Register here. Catherine’s poem "Break" appeared in A Public Space No. 33.