Monday Memo

Magical figurine of foreigner, Egypt, Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12–13, The Met

This week we're talking about:

• Jesmyn Ward's Keynote Address at Tulane University's Commencement this year. Read her first published story, "Cattle Haul," in APS No. 05.
• Read Parul Sehgal's much-discussed New York Times Book Review "Sonnets That Reckon With Donald Trump’s America" on Terrance Hayes' new book, and his "Two Poems" in APS No. 18, and sign up for Sehgal's Master Class on Close Reading at A Public Space Academy on July 12.
• "All Foreigners Beep," by Dubravka Ugrešić from APS No. 06, which we've unlocked for all to read this week: What can I say to that? Foreigners of all countries unite? No, no, foreigners of all countries do not unite! Unless you want to become—locals. And you, locals, be kind to foreigners, because without them you wouldn’t know that you are—locals.
• Two LGBTQIA+ classics that we'd like to see back in print: Kaitlyn Greenidge on Stone Butch Blues, "The Best Book for 2018 Is 25 Years Old," and "Donald Windham Wrote the Essential Gay Fiction You Didn’t Know You Were Missing," at Electric Lit
• Events on our agenda, both happening on Thursday in New York, "The only event of its kind, the annual Poets House Showcase is a free exhibit featuring the new poetry books and poetry-related texts published in the United States in a single year from over 700 commercial, university and independent presses," with a headlined reading by Kaveh Akbar, who has a poem in the current issue of APS (sold out, but subscribers can read it online), and Searching for Soul: New York City in the Age of Hyper-Gentrification at the Museum of the City of New York, with Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, who wrote about Harlem in APS No. 12, and more. Know of an event anywhere in the world that you believe would be of interest to fellow readers of A Public Space? Send details and a link to information online to Lauren Cerand (lauren@apublicspace.org) at least two weeks in advance.