I’ve said before in this space and I’ll say it again: the single most important element of literature to me…
So Shiny and Bright: My Picks for the Best Books of 2011
The last few years, I wrote and wrote. A lot. And read, too, but certainly not as much as I…
Buy my book! Buy Shut Up/Look Pretty while it’s on sale! Only two more days!
Yes, friends. I know this is self-promotion. I know. But. This is also other-awesome-people-promotion. So. Bear with me please and…
A Book With a Broken Heart: On Robert Kloss’s How the Days of Love and Diptheria
Let’s just get this out there: I think Robert Kloss is one of the most exciting writers to emerge from…
The Sot-Weed Factor: A Duet, Part III
The third installment wherein our Hero & Heroine contemplate, to the Best of their Feeble Abilities, the NOVEL’S conclusion, its…
A Sudden Huge Overpowering Nostalgia for Libraries
The other day, Matt Bell posted a nice status update about a childhood library experience, and it quickly become clear…
Thoughtcast Features Helen Vendler on Emily Dickinson
For those of you participating in (or following the discussion on) the Big Other book club, we’re going to be…
Why Do So Many Writers Want to Teach Writing?
Disclaimer: this is not about MFA programs as a whole. I have never attended an MFA program, I cannot speak…
Seeing is Believing is a New Way of Looking
Some of the best art has emerged from of a failure of the senses. Think of Monet, his eyesight going,…
Be Afraid; or Self-Preservation through Storytelling: A Review of Ben Loory’s Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
Ben Loory‘s Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day is one of the nicest-looking, nicest-feeling books you will ever…