And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again

In this rich, eye-opening and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists and translators from more than thirty countries offer a profound, kaleidoscopic portrait of lives transformed by the coronavirus pandemic. As COVID-19 has become the defining global experience of our time, writers offer a powerful antidote to the fearful confines of isolation: a window onto corners of the world beyond our own. And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante’s Inferno , when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, poems, and artwork in this collection detail the harrowing realities of the pandemic, while pointing toward a more connected future.