11 to 20 11 Emmanuel hesitates to turn to the Señora and ask her how she was arrested, where, when. The subject is delicate with this woman, who has not spoken to him once, while she’s used expletives to confront the redhair teenager to her right, sent stigmatizing words in…

What was called on campus “the trailers” were prefabricated houses, flimsy elevated metal structures fronted by creaky stairs, and a small landing. Classrooms were connected by a maze of plastic corridors, which met around soda machines and payphones. As you moved down the hall, your face was illuminated by neon…

This is about the first paid job I ever had in the United States, my first night of catering. I put $120 in my new bank account and there would be no taxes on it. A small fortune considering that I’d stepped out of the plane hardly two weeks earlier…

I was born into consciousness in the chambre de bonne on the sixth floor where my parents slept at night (and me baby at the foot of their bed) when we lived in Paris, 56 rue de Notre Dame de Nazareth. As soon as I was a little older, they…

Doug Jensen was a young man making his way in New York and becoming famous among a certain category of educated readers. …

I went this morning to answer an advertisement for a vacant room in a group house at T and Swan Street. Several of the roommates asked me questions about my immigration, which I colored at my leisure. Once introduced into this large house filled with students from basement to roof…

After my parents separated for good, I found a way to escape the second-class hotel where my family had ended. By family, I mean what was left of it: little sister, mother, and me. I would sneak out by running down the blue corridor, without anyone from the Reception noticing…

THIRD LIFE Those that lived long before you \the ones you have no memory of \the ones you never met though they are closest to you \the ones whose name you bear but never had a chance to bury \they will come back in one form or another, not to…

Coincidence? When he thought about it later, it’s right after that collective thought went breathing through them that the train came back almost to their starting point. Almost. …