Writers from around the world provide essays, stories, poems and artwork detailing the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction / by Ilan Stavans -- Our Lives as Birds / Shenaz Patel (Mauritius) ; translated by Lisa Ducasse -- Letter to Italy / Jhumpa Lahiri (United States/Italy) ; translated by Alta L. Price -- A Return to the Middle Ages? / Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) ; translated by Samuel Rutter -- Pandemania / Daniel Halpern (United States) -- Hieroglyphs of COVID-19; or Lockdown / Hubert Haddad (Tunisia / France) ; translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman -- Life of a Virus / Javier Sinay (Argentina) ; translated by Robert Croll -- An Area of Critical Concern / Rajiv Mohabir (United States / Guyana) -- Obstacle / Mona Kareem (Kuwait / United States) -- Journal of the Kairos / Filip Springer (Poland) ; translated by Sean Gasper Bye -- A Cowardly New World / Teresa Solana (Spain) ; translated by Peter Bush -- Intrusion / Naivo (Madagascar) ; translated by Allison M. Charette -- Augury / Frederika Randall (United States / Italy) -- Our Old Normal / Khalid Albaih (Sudan) -- A Certain Slant of Light / Hamid Ismailov (Uzbekistan) ; translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega -- Genesis, COVID.19 / Andřs Neuman (Argentina / Spain) ; translated by Ilan Stavans -- @Coronarratives / Nadia Christidi (Lebanon) -- Plague Days / Lynne Tillman (United States) -- Song of the Stormy Petrel: A Cautionary Tale / Maxim Osipov (Russia) ; translated by Boris Dralyuk -- Today, When I Could Do Nothing / Jane Hirshfield (United States) -- Virus of Hasty Cover-Up / G̲yrgy Spi̤r (Hungary) ; translated by Bernard Adams -- Longest Shift: A New Doctor Faces the Coronavirus in Queens / Rivka Galchen (Canada / United States) -- Not Without / Forrest Gander (United States) -- Toiling Under the Canopy of Empire / Lilya Kalaus (Kazakhstan) ; translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega -- Chronicle from the Vortex of a Global Tragedy / Gabriela Wiener (Peru) ; translated by Jessica Powell -- Age of Calamity / Jon lee Anderson and Ilan Stavans (United States and Mexico) -- Peregrination / Louis-Philippe Dalembert (Haiti) ; translated by Ghjulia Romiti -- Draupadi on the Mountaintop / Priyanka Champaneri (United States) -- Confronting the Pandemic in a Time of Revolt: Voices from Chile / Ariel Dorfman (Chile) -- Parable of the Bread / Juan Villoro (Mexico) ; translated by Charlotte Coombe -- Confinement / Ana Simo (United States) -- Corona Correspondence #25 / Francine Prose (United States) -- My First Lockdown / Majed Abusalama (Palestine) -- Coronapocalypse: Reflections from Lockdown / Pedro Ángel Palou (Mexico) ; translated by Hebe Powell -- Measure of a Distance / Chloe Aridjis (Mexico / United Kingdom) -- Descent / Wu Ming-Yi (Taiwan) ; translated by Jenna Tang -- Quarantine Chronicle / Eko (Mexico) -- Two Poems / Andř Naffis-Sahely (Italy / United Arab Emirates) -- Day after the Plague / Yishai Sarid (Israel) ; translated by Ronnie Hope -- In Hiatus / Claire Messud (United States) -- Poem for Hikmet / Matthew Zapruder (United States) -- Coronavirus Blues / ̀Gbor T. S̀zntó (Hungary) ; translated by Paul Olchváry -- Birthday / Sayed Kashua (Palestinian citizen of Israel) ; translated by Mitch Ginsburg -- Living with My Younger Self / Arshia Sattar (India) -- Empty Days / Carlos Fonseca (Costa Rica / Puerto Rico) -- Quarantine / Eavan Boland (Ireland) -- Wounda / Eduardo Halfon (Guatemala) -- Arm of Mercy / Grace Talusan (Philippines / United States) -- More Was Lost in the War / Daniel Alar̤cn (Peru) ; translated by Ilan Stavans -- Three Poems / Chris Abani (Nigeria / United States) -- This, Too, Shall Pass / Yoss (Cuba) ; translated by David Frye -- My Seclusion / Giacomo Sartori (Italy) ; translated by Frederika Randall