216 pages.

In this issue:

Interview:

Acclaimed poet and critic W.S. Di Piero in conversation: on Shakespeare, the art of translation (the translator inhabits “The house of a language, an imagination, a culture.”), and on being a good citizen.

Nonfiction:

Sallie Tisdale’s essay “The Hinge”: “My worst regrets,” she writes, “are not big and dramatic; they are as tiny and sharp as glass ground into my palm.”

Fiction:

Nick Lane’s “So You’re Thinking of Becoming a Despot”: It’s easier than you think (and it’s a great way of getting that one village girl to finally notice you).

Louis B. Jones’ “Ever Since the Cloverleaf”: Two old friends having lunch—and a conversation that flirts with the criminal—at a near-shuttered Trader Vic’s.

Victoria Patterson’s “Appetite”: The wife of an author begins a fraught friendship with an aspiring writer.

Ben Greenman’s “Right Angles”: snippets from the inner life of Fearless Leader.

Plus more fiction from Christine Sneed, Kristen Iskandrian (“Good With Boys,” selected for Best American Short Stories 2018), and Andrew Martin, and introducing Andrew Mangan.

Poetry:

Laton Carter, W.S. Di Piero, Ru Freeman, D.A. Powell, sam sax, Melissa Stephenson, Cynthia White, and Paul Wilner.

Art:

A portfolio of stunning still life photography from Paulette Tavormina