Biographical note

Leon Wieseltier is the editor of Liberties.

Celeste Marcus is the managing editor of Liberties.

Elliot Ackerman is a writer and former Marine and the author most recently, with Admiral James Stavridis, of 2034, A Novel of the Next World War.

Durs Grünbein is a German poet and essayist. His most recent book of poems is Porcelain: Poem on the Downfall of My City. This essay was translated by Karen Leeder.

Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author most recently of Self Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race.

Anita Shapira is an Israeli historian. She is the author, among other books, of Ben Gurion: Father of Modern Israel and Israel: A History.

Adam Zagajewski, who died in Krakow in April 2021, was a Polish poet and essayist. His most recent book of poetry in English is Asymmetry. The poems in this issue were translated by Clare Cavanagh.

Sally Satel is a visiting professor of psychiatry at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center.

R.B. Kitaj, the American painter, died in 2007. His autobiography, Confessions of an Old Jewish Painter, was posthumously published in 2017.

Matthew Stephenson is the Eli Goldston Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

Helen Vendler is the author, among many other books, of Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen Out of Desire.

David Haziza is a French writer and the author of a translation and commentary on the Song of Songs.

A.E. Stallings is an American poet and translator living in Athens.

Paul Berman is the author of numerous books, including The Flight of the Intellectuals.

Clara Collier is a writer based in California.

Michael Kimmage is a professor of history at the Catholic University of America and the author most recently of The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy.

Peg Boyers is a poet and the executive editor of Salmagundi.