Welcome to the May 2015 issue of Transnational Literature.

This issue includes the first fruits of a project conceived early last year, to make a feature of Philosophy and Literature – Philosophy as Literature. Included are two peer-reviewed articles and two creative pieces, and we expect that the November issue will include more on this fascinating theme.

In the general section of the issue, we have a bumper crop of seven excellent peer reviewed articles on a wide range of literature. There is an emphasis on diasporic writers, the true border-crossers, who began life in countries as diverse as India, Vietnam, Iran, Japan and the United States and are now living and writing in Australia, the UK, Japan and the United States.

Two translations are included, an enigmatic poem from the Mandarin and a satirical story from Urdu.

Creative writing is flourishing, with two dozen stories and poems, all in some way reflecting the transnational experience of their authors. And nearly the same number of book reviews, on poetry, fiction and criticism, round out our fourteenth issue.
At the end of our seventh year of publication, I would like to pay tribute to the dedicated team of editors who make this journal possible. Kathryn Koromilas did a huge amount of work towards our Philosophy feature, and although she has been unable to carry it through to publication owing to circumstances beyond her control, it would never have happened without her.

Our section editors Heather Taylor Johnson (poetry), Gay Lynch (prose creative writing), Md Rezaul Haque (translations) and Patrick Allington and Ruth Starke (reviews) work their editorial duties into very busy lives, and I am very grateful for the time and care they take working with contributors to make sure that each contribution is the best it can be. I would particularly like to pay tribute to Gay Lynch, who is stepping aside as prose creative writing editor after this issue, for the meticulous attention she has devoted to this section of the journal over past few years. Many authors have benefited by Gay’s careful attention to their writing.

And let us not forget those editors who work behind the scenes, helping with the necessary but unglamorous work of assessing articles and seeing them through peer review. Emily Sutherland and Paul Ardoin are invaluable and trusted colleagues, and Molly Murn has helped with editorial work on this issue as well. There is also a whole anonymous army of peer reviewers, without whom we could not operate as an academic journal.

And most of all, thanks to all the contributors. Here’s to the next seven years!

Gillian Dooley

Plato and Gorgias walk into a Symposium

Transnational Literature, May 2015: Complete Articles in one file for ease of downloading and printing

Poetry

Creative and Life Writing

Transnational Literature, May 2015: Complete Prose Creative and Life Writing in one file for ease of downloading or printing

Transnational Literature, May 2015: Complete Book Reviews (Poetry) in one file for ease of downloading or printing

Transnational Literature, May 2015: Complete Book Reviews (Creative and Life Writing) in one file for ease of downloading or printing

Book Reviews - History, Theory and Criticism

Transnational Literature, May 2015: Complete Book Reviews (History, Theory and Criticism) in one file for ease of downloading or printing