James Janko
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James Janko's Novels
Novelist, Poet, Veteran | Author of ‘The Clubhouse Thief’ and ‘What We Don’t Talk About’ | New book ‘The Wire-Walker’ out September 23, 2025
"I would like to give all of Palestine the smells I love most: cardamom and coffee. These morning smells say to me, 'You’re alive, you’re still here, and so is your family.' My grandfather invites me to sip his coffee. No sugar, no honey. Black mud at the bottom of the cup."![]()
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—Amal Tuqan, in The Wire-Walker, by James Janko (forthcoming Sept. 2025)![]()
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Two Poets Write on the Same Theme![]()
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From Howl by Allen Ginsberg (City Lights Books, 1956)![]()
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by/ madness, starving hysterical naked,/ dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn/ looking or an angry fix…”![]()
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In Forest of Noise, poems by Mosab Abu Toha (Alfred A. Knopp, 2024)![]()
“After Allen Ginsberg![]()
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I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed in a tent,/ looking for water and diapers for kids;/ destroyed by bombs,/ a generation under the rubble/ of their bombed homes; I saw the best brains of my generation/ protruding from their slashed skulls.”
Several years ago, while visiting my hometown in rural Illinois, I read an article in the local newspaper about a circus in the Galilee for Israeli children and Palestinian children. The News-Tribune covers Illinois Valley news almost exclusively, so this article stood out. ![]()
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I’d never planned to write about Palestine or Israel. In the end, though, I write about what haunts me, what gets into my dreams and my waking, what refuses to go away.![]()
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Inspiration for 'The Wire-Walker' came when I had the opportunity to watch the youth of the Nablus Circus School in Palestine practice and perform. I envied their aliveness, their unjaded curiosity, and the joy they expressed while displaying their talent.![]()
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The girl I remember best is a gymnast, not a wire-walker, and I swear she literally shone while she performed, and shone a bit brighter when interviewed by a journalist after the show. ![]()
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There are in this broken world those who light rooms, halls, outdoor arenas, and gift us with their presence. ![]()
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This girl was, and is, another kind of sun.![]()
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I invited her into my heart and mind while writing 'The Wire-Walker'. I wish I had a photograph of the light around her body, her brilliant and mischievous smile. I don’t need a photograph to see her, but you do. ![]()
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Words aren’t enough.![]()
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Amal Tuqan, The Wire-Walker, is the most lovable character to ever come my way. Her art is similar to the art of writing. “On the wire,” she says, “I take one step, just one, now another, another, because all the way across, at each juncture, there is only one.” ![]()
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And I follow Amal one word at a time, the earth below us, the sky above, and the reader can count words or steps and call it a novel or a performance. I know this sounds crazy, but every word, every step, should help to save the world. Why else should one write? Why else should one walk?![]()
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Is light the basic architecture of all things? Amal doesn’t know why light fills her body each morning unless this is the way of bodies, to catch light the way trees catch light, to shine even from a gray alley or the backseat of a car. Her body shines, as if she carries inside her pockets of light and can show them off the way others might show off valuable jewels or rare coins…Does a body stop where the skin stops? ![]()
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Sometimes yes, sometimes no. ![]()
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"If I walk well,” says Amal, “careful and quiet, I can feel all around me the shape of the air, the sky, and I grow larger than myself. Something I can’t name, something shiny, moves inside me and beyond me. If people say I’m small, it’s because their eyes are small. All they see is some skin that slips over me like a stocking. They’re missing the light around the body, the part of me no bullet can harm. The calmer I am, the shinier I am. I believe Phillippe Petit and other great aerialists would know what I mean.”![]()
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#TheWireWalker #JamesJanko #StoriesofHumanity #FictionalDrama #HeartwarmingBooks #YAFiction