Describe and Illuminate

The past 30 years can be easily divided into pre-9/11 and post-9/11, but the terror-filled turning point is now a dulled, muted memory from ten years ago. Granta, a quarterly British literary magazine, has turned its latest issue into an exploration of how the world has changed since the four Al-Qaeda suicide attacks took more than 3,000 lives one late-summer morning. One story follows a deaf Libyan graffiti artist hiding from Moammar Gadhafi's men. Another centers on a soldier who can't quiet his mind after deployment to Iraq. A former Guantánamo Bay inmate tells of his five years in confinement. A mix of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Granta is known for spotlighting emerging writers such as Jonathan Franzen and Lorrie Moore years before they appear on any best-seller list. In conjunction with this issue, which features Nicole Krauss and Pico Iyer, among other noteworthy writers, the magazine is hosting a 40-city Granta 116: Ten Years Later tour. At the Miami stop at Book & Books this Saturday, local writers Diana Abu-Jaber, Edwidge Danticat, and Cristina Garcia will use Granta 116 to discuss the moral, political, and aesthetic ramifications of 9/11.
Sat., Sept. 10, 5 p.m., 2011