11 Comments
User's avatar
Jean McGarry's avatar

Horrifying account, and yours was the only place where I read such vivid enumeration and naming. Good advice, too, in the last paragraph.

Expand full comment
Ann Kjellberg's avatar

Thank you!

Expand full comment
Rebecca Chace's avatar

💔💔💔 no words

Expand full comment
Ted's avatar

For me this was the money quote: “ I wish the battling academic camps could put the effort they put into rampart construction into more effective sanctuaries for listening and sympathy; that the sought-after places of “safety” could be shared, at least from time to time, rather than barricaded; that the habits and skills of understanding could be cultivated alongside the finessing of mutual scorn.”

Expand full comment
Ann Kjellberg's avatar

Thanks! I don’t mean to be too starry-eyed. I mean it in a practical way.

Expand full comment
John Oakes's avatar

Timely and courageous, Ann. Thank you for writing this.

Expand full comment
Ann Kjellberg's avatar

Thank you so much!

Expand full comment
Ted's avatar

I didn’t take it that way. In fact, like most people I thought it as an indication of your intelligence since were in agreement!

Expand full comment
Ann Kjellberg's avatar

Shucks!

Expand full comment
michael röbbins's avatar

Thanks for this, Ann. I forbear to link, but Tablet has published a disgusting desecration of Refaat Alareer's memory by a writer who poses for photos in an IDF hoodie. It is possibly the most evil thing I have ever read in a mainstream journal. Free Palestine.

Expand full comment
Ann Kjellberg's avatar

I did see that actually. I thought it was notable that he didn't actually talk about the poems of any of the writers he held up as superior models.

Expand full comment