Table of Contents, Masthead, and Editor's Note

Abstract

PHOTO OF MARION BLOEM PAINTING: IVAN WOLFFERS SUBSCRIBE NOW at worldliteraturetoday.com DEPARTMENTS Crime & Mystery 09 The Life and Times of Perry Mason: The Evolution of Today’s Legal Thrillers BY J. MADISON DAVIS Essays 12 Of Prisons and Freedom: Liberation in the Work of Assia Djebar BY PHYLLIS TAOUA Fiction 19 Birth BY SANDRA JENSEN Essays Poetry 15 Single Last Sale: A Parallel Poem BY CHANGMING YUAN 18 Two Poems BY AARON FAGAN 23 More Than the Edge BY LILAH CLAY 25 Three Poems BY BIJAN JALALI Contents In Every Issue | 03 Editor’s Note | 05 Notebook | 47 Editor’s Pick | 60 World Literature in Review | 80 Outpost NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2012 WLT Interviews 20 Writing a Letter, Changing the Law: A Conversation with Marion Bloem BY MICHELLE JOHNSON COVER FEATURE Law & Literature 26 “Going Mad by Grains” Reflections on Law and Literature “If the law permeates our lives before we are born, reaching even into the womb, so too do stories, guaranteeing that law and literature will remain intimate bedfellows in the years to come.” DEJI OLUKOTUN, PEN American Center’s Freedom to Write Fellow, introduces our special section on law and literature. 30 Lizards’ Colony BY MAHMOUD SAEED 42 Anyone Have Any Idea What Jesus Wrote Here? BY SOPHIE HARDACH 48 Immoral Acts BY JUAN PABLO VILLALOBOS 52 Through Me Many Long Dumb Voices: The Poet-Lawyer BY MARTÍN ESPADA 59 Self-Questions for Possible Suspects under Section 2(B) of Arizona SB 1070 BY FRANCISCO X. ALARCÓN On the Cover Juan Pablo Villalobos photographed by Renato Parada. To read a story by the author, turn to page 48. You peer down, your head just a handful in your mother’s palm and all you see is a wild blurry kicking and so you open your mouth and the unholy noise that comes out silences even you. – Sandra Jensen FOR MORE TURN TO PAGE 19. 52 20 18 30 05 NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS editorial board Roger Allen Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda Manuel Durán George Gömöri Talat S. Halman Alamgir Hashmi Vasa D. Mihailovich Farzaneh Milani Tanure Ojaide Ilán Stavans Michelle Yeh Theodore Ziolkowski contributing editors Hester Baer José Juan Colín J. Madison Davis Pamela Genova Andrew Horton Emily Johnson Takeshi Kimoto Monica Seger Jonathan Stalling Rob Vollmar WLT WORLD LITERATURE TODAY World Literature Today is published bimonthly at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. Postmaster: Send address changes to WLT, 630 Parrington Oval, Suite 110, Norman OK 73019-4037. Periodicals postage paid at Hanover PA 17331. Copyright © 2012 by World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma. ISSN 0196-3570 (1945-8134 online). Subscription and advertising rates are listed on our website (www.worldliteraturetoday. com) or can be obtained through the editorial office. Ph: 405.325.4531. Fax: 405.325.7495. 3,200 copies of this issue have been prepared and distributed by the Sheridan Press at no cost to the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma. The University of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity institution. November–December 2012 executive director & neustadt professor assistant director & editor in chief managing editor book review editor programs & development art director digital media editor circulation & accounts digital media assistant web development assistant Volume 86, Number 6 Robert Con Davis-Undiano Daniel Simon Michelle Johnson Marla Johnson Terri D. Stubblefield Merleyn Ruth Bell Jennifer Rickard Kay Blunck Kaitlin Hawkins Sam Tran The WLT Editorial Board The editors of WLT are pleased to announce the addition of two new scholars to our editorial board: Farzaneh Milani and Michelle Yeh. Dr. Milani is Professor of Persian Literature & Women’s Studies and Chair of the Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures at the University of Virginia. Her most recent book is Words, Not Swords: Iranian Women Writers and the Freedom of Movement (see WLT, May 2012, 78). Dr. Yeh is Professor of East Asian Languages & Cultures at the University of California , Davis. Her recent contributions to WLT include a special section on Taiwan (January 2010), which she guest-edited, and an essay on Duo Duo (March 2011). We would also like to thank departing board member Howard Goldblatt for his long and distinguished service to our...