Robert Walser’s “dramolets”

Conjunction‘s 60th issue features a special section of three previously untranslated “dramolets” by Robert Walser. “Walter, who personally knew more than most about loss and absence,” writes Bradford Morrow, “is seen here in a fresh light thanks to Daniele Pantano and James Reidel’s deft translations . . . I believe that readers who already admire Walser’s vision and achievement will find his remarkable plays a cause for celebration.”

The issue, titled “In Absentia,” is all about “Things Gone Missing. People vanished or changed beyond recognition. A once-bedrock belief now so alien as not to seem believable anymore. A woman’s threat of suicide. A man’s phantom limb. Another who comes home from prison only to find that home is no longer what it was, friends no longer who they were. Love gained, love lost. A promise forgotten. A couple gone off the grid into the woods and ghost-plagued madness. An exceptionally ill-timed death…”

The issue features the work of Joyce Carol Oates, Lucy Ives, Brian Evenson, Yannick Murphy, G. C. Waldrep, Robert Olen Butler, Miranda Mellis, Robert Coover, and many more.