Book News: Life During a Pandemic, From Writers Around the World

Greetings, Friends: Here’s a quick plug for a new book collection that includes an essay I wrote a few months back about the coronavirus. The book is titled “Corona Times: Words from the Pandemic,” and was just published by Yacoob Manjoo, a fine poet and blogging acquaintance of mine from South Africa.

The collection features 16 poems and essays about life under COVID-19, by writers from various global outposts. Better yet: it’s free. Just click on this link and you can download the PDF version. There may be an e-book version published at some point, but for now it’s available online or in PDF form.

In his foreward, Yacoob describes the book thusly:

“The collection before you captures the thoughts of individuals from around the world during the early months of the pandemic. It reflects the bewilderment at the strange circumstances thrust upon us, the sadness of losing the way of life we took for granted, and the challenges of our strange new world under lockdown. But it also captures the immense hope and positivity gifted to us: the embracing of this episode as a means of necessary and positive change, and a means by which to better appreciate the little things we previously glossed over, in lives that were distracted by things we gave too much importance to.”

My submission is entitled “The Memory of Here and Now,” and was published on my blog back on May 5. Yacoob and I correspond from time to time and he’d asked me if he could use my essay for the collection, and of course I was happy to oblige.

I hope you’ll take the time to download and read the collection. It provides a poignant and interesting glimpse into how others around the world have dealt with the coronavirus, and what they’ve learned and observed in the process. Thanks!