October 11, 2013
Skyscrapers of Light
In 1938, Westinghouse buried a time capsule in a section of Queens described as a “valley of ashes” in The Great Gatsby. The time capsule was supposed to contain a […]
September 30, 2013
The Poetics of Campus Security Alerts
Someone needs to write the book on a new genre of literature gripping the land. It is a short form; its characters are stock; its storylines nearly never begin in […]
September 23, 2013
Zen and The Art of Cover Letter Writing
The best insight I received about job applications came from a mentor who had led many search committees, who had seen the best candidates “on paper” simply bomb interviews, while […]
September 18, 2013
Storytelling Now, or, Watching Movies at the Gym
At Eastern Tennessee State University, you can earn a Master of Arts in Storytelling. Located in Johnson City, Tennessee, “in the heart of traditional storytelling country,” the next town over […]
August 31, 2013
Not Guilty–Of Course
Out of the hurricane of words published in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, I found Robin D.G. Kelley’s essay, “The U.S. v. Trayvon Martin: How the System Worked,” to […]
August 30, 2013
The Literary Self(ie)
My favorite part of any literary biography or memoir is usually the glossy white section with the photographs. The photo section, along with the text, constructs the literary self we […]
August 26, 2013
This Is Your Writing On Drugs
Many writers would love to use words the way Alex Rodriguez plays baseball. And many have availed themselves of “performance-enhancing drugs” (PEDs), but writers’ culture is such that there will […]
August 20, 2013
Café of the Future
The Long Now Foundation is hiring volunteers to curate their “Manual for Civilization,” a collection of 3500 volumes to be shelved in the Long Now Salon. Founded in “01996,” Long […]
July 31, 2013
Life is Like a Comic Book
I was raised on comic books. I never read them, but I did flip through them, since my dad gave me one of those long white boxes full of them. […]
July 31, 2013
Digital Artifacts
The books and films of the world are going digital. As we digitize, whether in the name of preservation or access (usually it’s both), we make new texts and images. […]
July 15, 2013
Confessions of a Book Killer
Last Wednesday, I killed a book. I doubt anyone will miss it–Microphotography for Libraries: Papers presented to the Microphotography Symposium at the 1936 Conference of the American Library Association. Bound […]
July 5, 2013
On Recommended Books
I’ve just returned from The Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College, where I met wonderfully interesting people, received helpful feedback on my writing, and, as happens at such […]