ON PARABLES Many complain that the words of the wise are always merely parables and of no use in daily…
Some few thoughts on facticity
You know the difference between plain old “sci-fi” and “hard science fiction”? One’s boring. Nah. I’m just joking. The…
Exits Are: An Interview with Mike Meginnis
“A conversation is a journey, and what gives it value is fear.” So says Anne Carson. Exits Are is a…
How I Wrote Certain of My Books
[In which I elaborate on an earlier post, “Slow Writing?“] In thinking about my earlier contention that writing ought to…
Interview with Michelle Butler Hallett
Outside of Canada, most people, when asked to name a Canadian writer, might think of Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Michael…
Slow Writing?
Would that there were no other kind. Sara Levine, author of the fantastic Treasure Island!!!, was interviewed in the…
I Can Read for Miles and Miles: Field Report from the Moby-Dick Marathon
Last weekend I went to the Moby-Dick marathon, an annual event in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where much of the landlubbing…
The North American Innovation Crash of 1993
The Ombudsman of the Washington Post has this to say about “innovation”: “I’m wondering, and readers are too, whether…
Acquiring the Superfluous
[Alexander Theroux’s essay “Theroux Metaphrastes” was published as an appendix to David R. Godine’s 1975 edition of Theroux’s 1972 novel,…
Pop-up Books: An Homage
Last week, as I was picking up some films from the library of my alma mater, the University of New…