By Michelle McAlister
Don’t get me wrong. I can appreciate backpackers’ zealous appetite-for-fun, and even their raucous pranks, but I did not fly across the Atlantic to wear a Grecian toga and pound shots of pink-hued booze in a 10:00am contest. So when my taxi driver shows up to rescue me from the Pink Palace, a […]

By Nicole Zimmerman
“Um beijinho,” Gean coaxed, his lips just brushing my ear as he whispered it. “One little kiss.”
It wasn’t romance that I was seeking when I came to Brazil. But it sought me. Romance swept me into its arms on the dance floor of a forro festival. It raised its eyebrows and murmured “gostoza” […]

By Barbara Robertson
“The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it; it is one of his toys and his most steadfast love.” – Octavio Paz
This is what I remember: White sheets limp with sweat twisted around his naked body, a low mattress in a small white room, sun […]

by Jann Huizenga
“Now I must go move my cows,” says Fabio in Italian. “Do you want to see my farm?” The invitation seems innocent enough, and I readily agree. Certo! In my desultory Sicilian life, there’s nothing I don’t want to see, no frontier to my curiosity.
We fold ourselves into his little yellow bee of […]

by Kevin McCaughey
Anusha was late to my apartment. She came in soaked, harried. Storms had drenched the north of Poland the last four days, a fine Baltic September. “Oh, God,” she said. She worked herself out of her coat.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It was cat,” she said. Rain had mashed […]

by Diane LeBow
I found Paris especially difficult to leave that morning. Familiar buildings and monuments glistened with fresh snow that had fallen during the night. Teary-eyed, I almost fell as I skidded over the medieval cobblestones of my Marais apartment courtyard for the last time. The cabby studied me in his rearview mirror.
“Why are you […]