Esther King
@esthermavis.bsky.social
📤 335
📥 186
📝 29
Deputy editor, The Dial (
@thedialmag.bsky.social
)
reposted by
Esther King
The Dial
9 days ago
“How does the absence of the mother affect a child?” Amanda Marton Ramaciotti asks. In this essay, Marton Ramaciotti writes about adoring her mother while fearing schizophrenia, the disease that made her leave.
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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I Don’t Want to Be Like You — The Dial
In 1994, my mother had her first psychotic break.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/schizophrenia-essay
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14 days ago
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Esther King
John Vink
16 days ago
"Their Name is Piehsak" found a nice spot in the form of an online photo-essay in The Dial. All the Khmer that are still displaced thank The Dial for not forgetting them.
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Esther King
Justin Salhani
21 days ago
Very dystopian timing. I’ve been working on this since November. Thanks
@thedialmag.bsky.social
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Esther King
The Dial
23 days ago
In a conversation at the Bergen International Literary Festival, Albanian author Lea Ypi and American poet Joy Williams discussed translations of their work with Polish translator Julia Wiedlocha—and how they feel about big changes to their texts and being translated by AI.
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Lea Ypi, Joy Williams and Julia Widelocha on Translation — The Dial
A conversation from the Bergen International Literary Festival.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/lea-ypi-joy-williams-conversation
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Esther King
Wasafiri Magazine
27 days ago
@esthermavis.bsky.social
reads Leo Boix's collection SOUTHERNMOST SONNETS (Chatto & Windus 2025), reflecting on the 'push and pull of belonging to different places' and how it has shaped her understandings of home, geography, partnership, family, and grief. Read:
www.wasafiri.org/content/medi...
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I wrote a piece for Wasafiri about living in multiple languages and finding home. With thanks to the thoughtful editors at
@wasafirimag.bsky.social
www.wasafiri.org/content/medi...
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Meditations — Esther King on Leo Boix's Southernmost: Sonnets
Esther King finds kinship in Argentine British poet Leo Boix's Southernmost:
https://www.wasafiri.org/content/meditations-esther-king-on-leo-boixs-southernmost-sonnets/
27 days ago
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Esther King
The New York Review of Books
about 1 month ago
“As world powers debate Gaza’s future...what will remain of its past?”—Madeleine Schwartz (
@mmschwartz.bsky.social
) on Gaza’s archaeological relics
https://go.nybooks.com/46bM65P
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Pieces of Gaza | Madeleine Schwartz
Until 2024, the objects on display in “Trésors sauvés de Gaza” (“Treasures Saved from Gaza”), an exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris that
https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/02/12/pieces-of-gaza-institut-du-monde-arabe/?utm_source=Bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2026-02-15_Schwartz-GazaTreasures-2
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Esther King
The Dial
about 1 month ago
Anna Juul reflects on the disappearance of physical mail in Denmark — and what a hyper-digital society gains and loses when letters, handwriting, and slower communication fade away:
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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The End of Mail in Denmark — The Dial
Who will mourn the last letter?
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/mail-postal-service-denmark
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Esther King
Longreads
about 1 month ago
In our weekly Top 5: —Lessons from apartheid (
@thedialmag.bsky.social
) —Clever Claude? (
@newyorker.com
) —Bodies anew (@GeorgiaReview) —Wax on, wax off (
@grist.org
) —Mine’s free (Dispatch Magazine)
longreads.com/2026/02/13/t...
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
In this week's Top 5 we have lessons from apartheid, clever Claude, feeling bodies anew, the power of wax, and free mining.
https://longreads.com/2026/02/13/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-597/?utm_source=X&utm_medium=social
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A great — maybe even uplifting? — read from
@imogenwk.bsky.social
on Wikipedia in the age of AI
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about 1 month ago
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Esther King
The Dial
about 2 months ago
During Trump’s first term, many Americans believed he was an exception in an otherwise functional political system. But the Turkish right saw what they refused to see: The American president could do what he wanted. Kaya Genç reports:
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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Welcome to the One-Man Regime — The Dial
The US looks a lot like Turkey.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/trump-erdogan-autocracy
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Esther King
The Dial
about 2 months ago
White people were not the intended victims of South Africa’s apartheid, but the police state heavily circumscribed its white citizens’ lives. People were censored and abused. As American conservatives idealize the apartheid era, Eve Fairbanks sends a warning: no one is protected in a police state.
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The Myth of the Police State — The Dial
No one, not even the supposed beneficiaries, is protected.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/south-africa-apartheid-police-state
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A very good read (and still, once again, very relevant)
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2 months ago
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2 months ago
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Esther King
The Dial
2 months ago
When Amir Ahmadi Arian was an aspiring writer growing up in Iran, almost everyone he met told him to read Sadeq Hedayat’s 1936 novel “The Blind Owl.” The work is not a pinnacle of literary craftsmanship, Arian writes, but it is an essential text for understanding the contradictions of Iran.
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Iran's Ultimate Banned Book — The Dial
The Blind Owl remains essential reading for understanding the country.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/iran-blind-owl-book
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Esther King
The Dial
2 months ago
In Rafaqat Hayat’s short story, translated from Urdu by Hammad Rind, a bus conductor is given a pack of sweet, fragrant cigarettes. The joy of owning something new and the pleasure of their unexpected taste is tinged by the reality that soon he’ll have none left.
www.thedial.world/articles/lit...
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“Indonesian Cigarettes” by Rafaqat Hayat — The Dial
A short story.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/literature/rafaqat-hayat-short-story
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Esther King
The New York Review of Books
2 months ago
Amir Ahmadi Arian on the blackout in Iran
https://go.nybooks.com/4jOx63p
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The Gray Tick | Amir Ahmadi Arian
In July 1987 the Hajj ceremony in Mecca turned into a bloodbath. Shia pilgrims, mostly Iranians, staged a protest, chanting against America, Israel, and
https://go.nybooks.com/4jOx63p
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Esther King
The Dial
4 months ago
"We’re selling vibes, textures. A sunset on the hills in Chianti, riding a bike on an island in Sicily. Imagine us discussing it in parliament with an Italian accent: l’importanza del made in Italy. We use the English expression unironically. It’s aimed at Americans," Francesco Pacifico writes.
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Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? — The Dial
How American tourists took over everything.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/american-tourists-rome
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Esther King
The Dial
4 months ago
How are fiction authors thinking about AI? Jessi Jezewska Stevens read a handful of recent novels that grapple with the anxiety and confusion of this new technology. Rather than predict the future as most science fiction does, these novels extend the present in an utterly recognizable way.
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Our AI, Ourselves? — The Dial
Recent novels reflect our own confusion about what makes us human.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/artificial-intelligence-fiction-playground
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Esther King
The Dial
4 months ago
“Learn all the cheat codes, participate in all the pre-game warmups: It’s still impossible to predict where a conversation might take you.” Lamorna Ash read three self-help books that promise to teach us how to have better conversations:
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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Why Are We So Afraid of Conversation? — The Dial
A glut of self-help books promises to teach us to do it better.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/conversation-self-help-books
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Esther King
The Dial
4 months ago
In 2018, two months before his 33rd birthday, Egyptian writer
@ahmednaji.bsky.social
arrived in the U.S. on a one-way ticket in a journey of exile and self-reinvention. These are excerpts from his journals from that time:
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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Las Vegas Diaries — The Dial
“These days I have no passport, no documents. And even if I manage to get one, I cannot return to Egypt.”
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/ahmed-naji-las-vegas-diary
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Esther King
The Dial
4 months ago
Today, we’re kicking off our end-of-year fundraising campaign. Support The Dial in promoting the exchange of ideas across borders!
www.thedial.world/support
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Can't wait to answer your questions đź‘€
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4 months ago
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Esther King
Justin Salhani
4 months ago
"But one fact remains and that’s if you're dead, it doesn't matter which leader 6,000 miles away never knew your name, never knew your story."
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
I wrote this last year during the worst days of the war. Much of it still applies.
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“They Are Liars” — The Dial
Israel’s attacks in Beirut, and American complicity in them, has confirmed for many Lebanese how little they matter to the United States.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/issue-21/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-war
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Esther King
Jess Traynor
4 months ago
Delighted to have a new article with The Dial - this time on tech giants, their alarming inflation of our GDP, and the mutation of the Dublin docklands from the early 2000s to today. Thanks to The Dial for the commission & their wonderful & astute editorial support.
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Esther King
Hannah Rosefield
5 months ago
What's the point of a global climate target?
@sophieyeo.bsky.social
on where 1.5C came from and where it's going:
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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What’s the Point of a Global Climate Target? — The Dial
Countries pledged to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Is it time to abandon it?
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/paris-agreement-15-target-climate-change
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Esther King
Helen Wang
5 months ago
“The Glamour Zoo”, short story by Li Jingrui, tr. me, in yesterday’s
@thedialmag.bsky.social
Here’s the link:
swe01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
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"The Glamour Zoo," by Li Jingrui — The Dial
A short story.
https://swe01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedial.world%2Farticles%2Fliterature%2Fli-jingrui-short-story&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cad865841ef9e440db43308de0b2b2f01%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638960477270740315%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=1O1il%2FLWZxdVS3%2FZXAr7A0peEeLziUwFKq%2FoWGFy0I8%3D&reserved=0
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Esther King
The Dial
6 months ago
“Border bears,” bears that roam between nations like the U.S. and Mexico, risk being disturbed by immigration policies and tariff-related threats. If President Trump continues to build the wall, these animals’ migration paths could end up completely blocked. Ganesh MarĂn reports.
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Bears at the Border — The Dial
How immigration and tariff policies affect the animals that roam between the U.S. and Mexico.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/bear-migration-us-mexico
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This was such a fantastic read, and a real pleasure to review for
@wwborders.bsky.social
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6 months ago
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Esther King
The Dial
6 months ago
Over the 1990s, Washington transformed Guantánamo Bay into a theater of extraterritorial mass incarceration to hold tens of thousands of Haitian and Cuban asylum-seekers fleeing political violence and economic collapse. Miriam Pensack reports on this little-known history.
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Guantánamo's Secret History — The Dial
Trump isn't the first president to use the military base for the U.S.'s dirty secrets
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/guantanamo-bay-history-migrants
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I translated Sabrina's great reporting from German for
@thedialmag.bsky.social
— read her dispatch here👇
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6 months ago
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Esther King
Lauren Elkin
6 months ago
I have a new translation up at
@thedialmag.bsky.social
, Lauren Bastide's Courir l'escargot, which we're calling Consider the Snail. I loved this book & was so happy to get to translate some excerpts from it, about slowness, failure, grief, alterity, cycles, & goo
www.thedial.world/articles/lit...
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Consider the Snail — The Dial
“In writing about snails, I wanted to write about slowness and strangeness, solitude and death, hibernation and estivation.”
https://www.thedial.world/articles/literature/lauren-bastide-essay
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Esther King
The Dial
7 months ago
1/ Dear readers, The Dial is evolving. You talked, we listened — and have made a few changes to our magazine.
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Imogen West-Knights
7 months ago
unexpected and very nice to have a piece I wrote for the dial about baseball last year selected for this anthology! âšľ the piece is here:
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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Esther King
The Dial
7 months ago
In “Burial at Sea,” a short story by Karim Kattan set in Palestine in the summer of 2019, the narrator loses a lover on a cruise vacation and reckons with their grief:
www.thedial.world/articles/lit...
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“Burial at Sea,” by Karim Kattan — The Dial
A short story.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/literature/issue-31/karim-kattan-short-story
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I spoke to the wonderful Karim Kattan about his recent stories for
@thedialmag.bsky.social
and why horror is a genre that speaks to the Palestinian experience: "You’re always trapped in a time that you can’t get free of.” Read the full conversation here:
www.thedial.world/articles/the...
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Palestinian Literature and the “Recurring Nightmare” of Occupation — The Dial
A conversation with Karim Kattan, whose short story “Burial at Sea” was published in our Fiction issue. A previous story, “Salt Air,” translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman, was pub...
https://www.thedial.world/articles/the-reporters-notebook/karim-kattan-interview
7 months ago
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Esther King
Alex Zucker
7 months ago
🤩 Delighted to say my translation of Klára Vlasáková’s short story “The Cells” was published today as part of
@thedialmag.bsky.social
’s Fiction issue:
bit.ly/4oQPrPB
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Esther King
Longreads
7 months ago
"I read of dogs furiously digging holes in the ground to escape the 35-degree heat. Children fainting during assembly early in the morning."
@arielsaramandi.bsky.social
for
@thedialmag.bsky.social
:
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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The Future of Climate Change Is on Mauritius — The Dial
Freak tornadoes, “explosions” of jellyfish, flash floods and dried up pumps.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/issue-30/mauritius-climate-crisis
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What place is there for fiction when reality demands our constant attention? The writers in our fiction issue this month give possible answers.
@thedialmag.bsky.social
www.thedial.world/articles/lit...
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“Illegal Alien,” by Jumaana Abdu — The Dial
A short story.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/literature/issue-31/jumaana-abdu-short-story
8 months ago
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Esther King
The Dial
8 months ago
In Mauritius, jellyfish are dying, the seas are boiling; the climate dystopia we fear for the future has already arrived, Ariel Saramandi writes:
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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The Future of Climate Change Is on Mauritius — The Dial
Freak tornadoes, “explosions” of jellyfish, flash floods and dried up pumps.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/issue-30/mauritius-climate-crisis
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"In the nearby women’s detention facility at Mezzeh Military Airport in Damascus, small clay heart decorations inscribed with messages were hanging alongside crayon-colored drawings of peaceful homelife — a kitchen table, a garden, a child’s bedroom." @thedialmag
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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Syria’s Archives of Atrocity — The Dial
Discarded documents from Assad’s regime offer clues to Syrians searching for lost family and friends.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/issue-30/assad-enforced-disappearances-syria
8 months ago
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Esther King
The Dial
8 months ago
More than 100 aid agencies warn of mass starvation in Gaza. Why has famine become a modern tool of war? Last year, Sarah Nouwen talked with the executive director of the World Peace Foundation and the UN's special rapporteur on the right to food:
www.thedial.world/articles/sta...
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https://www.thedial.world/articles/state-of-the-world/gaza-famine-international-law
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Esther King
Will Coldwell
8 months ago
The Dial is a super mag, which I've had the pleasure of contributing to a couple of times. For its summer reading list I recommended one book I can't stop thinking about – Dirty Work by
@epress.bsky.social
Check out the full list and donate to support unique and independent journalism :)
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Esther King
The Dial
8 months ago
Donate to The Dial before Aug. 1 and you’ll receive our exclusive reading list of more than 50 titles! As a nonprofit, we are proud to offer all our articles to readers for free. Your support allow us to continue to make our work accessible to all. Donate today:
www.thedial.world/summer-readi...
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Summer Reading Campaign
Get The Dial's exclusive summer reading list with 50+ global book recommendations. Support independent literary journalism with a $50 donation.
https://www.thedial.world/summer-reading-campaign-2025
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9 months ago
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"For Coetzee, Speaking in Tongues is part of a larger project of fighting the hegemony of English in world literature. It’s a worthy cause, but unfortunately his approach to it is both highly idiosyncratic and highly unproductive." A thoughtful critique from Carey Baraka for
@thedialmag.bsky.social
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9 months ago
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Fantastic news and great work by Ryan Lenora Brown & Majirata Latela for
@thedialmag.bsky.social
!
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9 months ago
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Esther King
The Dial
9 months ago
On Monday, Israel struck Iran’s Evin prison, known for the intellectuals, activists, artists and students who have served time there—many of whom are fighting for democracy. In 2024, we published five Iranian women’s accounts of their life behind bars in Evin.
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
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Letters from Inside Iran's Evin Prison — The Dial
Five Iranian women, all human rights activists, write of life behind bars.
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/issue-12/iran-evin-prison-women-inmate-letters
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“I’m happy that you called, ah, you see, it’s nice when you remember.” The subtle gut-punch of this new fiction by Valérie Mréjen (tr. by Katie Assef) on
@thedialmag.bsky.social
www.thedial.world/articles/lit...
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“Hello Sweetheart” by Valérie Mréjen — The Dial
A translation from “Eau Sauvage.”
https://www.thedial.world/articles/literature/issue-29/valerie-mrejen-eau-sauvage
9 months ago
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