I'm Via. I live here.

Havana - Cuba

“Mom raised me on her own since I was young. My dad didn’t care about our family. He was there physically, but he wasn’t there. He kept all his income for himself. He gambled away our possessions. We couldn’t buy anything for ourselves because he would sell it. He sold all our electronics. He even sold our furniture. But my mother still did everything for him: cooked his food, did his laundry… everything. Then one day she came home from work and the house was empty. There was nothing left but our clothes. I told her it was time to go. For the last two years we’ve been living in a rented house together. Mom seems so much lighter now. We can own our own things. We can actually make progress and move forward in life. I’ve started working at a pharmacy and I’m paying my way through college. I’m still in touch with my father. I even give him money for rent and food. I have no interest in taking revenge. I’m showing him how he should have treated us.” (Jakarta, Indonesia)

We miss you. Rest in peace.

july 27 ✧ waxing crescent ✧ shift in focus

“The greatest lie ever told about love is that it sets you free” — Zadie Smith In celebration of Zadie Smith’s birthday this week, we revisit Smith reading from her novel “On Beauty” at the 2006 World Voices Festival in today’s #PENpodcast.

Folk musicians touring the European countryside by bicycle. Photograph Roger-Viollet /Rex Features

The Young Readers Press First Dictionary illustrated by John Seares Riley