Jenny Erpenbeck in her study in Berlin last year.

A view of the University of Melbourne.

The author Deborah Feldman has been outspoken about German politics since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.

Ytasha Womack, a screenwriter on “Niyah and the Multiverse,” currently playing at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, is the author of numerous works including “Black Panther: A Cultural Exploration.”

Joanna Chen, whose essay about the war in Gaza led to turmoil at Guernica, a literary magazine.

Shuang Xuetao, one of China’s most celebrated young authors, is best known for his short stories chronicling the economic decline of his hometown, Shenyang, in the country’s northeast.

Alfred Grosser in his Paris office in 2009. A French citizen since age 12, he was called “one of the architects of postwar reconciliation with Germany.”

The “Paris end” of Collins Street in Melbourne, Australia, which inspired the name of a Substack newsletter committed to hyperlocal coverage.

How else to pass the time in those dark wintery nights before TV was invented?

Ahed Tamimi, who became an international symbol of Palestinian resistance as a teenager, was arrested by Israeli forces in a predawn raid earlier this month.

More than 300 screenwriters signed an open letter to the Writers Guild of America asking why it had not publicly denounced the Oct. 7 attack.