These unforgettable pieces ask us to confront war, to acknowledge all that is destroyed by it. Chris Abani, who was imprisoned three times by the Nigerian government, makes us understand, in a frightening yet tender poem, that he has indeed “seen too much.” Ellen Bass pierces the heart with her ode to all the children lost in the Gaza conflict: “It could be me / there with a dead baby.” In a quieter mode, Benjamin Alire Sáenz writes of communing with trees as a way of coping with sorrow. Olga Zilberbourg, a Russian native, expresses her grief over the Ukraine war while detailing the terror of living in an oppressive regime.
At a time when the world is roiled by conflict, we need works like these more than ever. We need to keep reading them.
Chris Abani
Say Something about Child’s Play
2009 Best of the Net Finalist
This boy says: Take my right eye, it has seen too much.
Ellen Bass
Pale Blue Vein
I thought the pain of the other was not like my pain.
Mehul Bhagat
Homeland
The place you’re returning to is rife with betrayal.
Marcella Hunyadi
Budapest 1984
The officer’s arm rose and swung toward me like a bat.
Daniel Mason
The Winter Soldier
2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize
“A case of severe coccygeal ichthyoidization.”
Ned Parker
The Oil Sheikh
2006 Narrative Prize Winner
“I’m serving my country. Oil is our national treasure.”
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Do Not Mind the Bombs
The wars are everywhere. I’ll plant another tree.
S.L. Wisenberg
Bad Girl in Berlin
Switzerland wouldn’t give Jews asylum, not then.
Tobias Wolff
Soldier’s Joy
I could shoot you and nobody would say boo.
Olga Zilberbourg
Quieter Than Water, Lower Than Grass: Growing Up Afraid in Russia
I have spent most of my life afraid of violence.