May 30, 2019
The Wow Moment: On the Joys of Teaching
June 2009. My classmates and I are gathered in a dimly lit room in Rome, where our instructors, Stephanie Vaughn and Michael Koch, lead Cornell’s annual summer creative writing program […]
May 29, 2019
“THE OLD ENCHANTMENT HOLDS”: VOICE, ALTERITY, AND THE IMAGE IN H.D.’S HELEN IN EGYPT
Introduction Generally speaking, it is not commonplace among critics of Helen in Egypt to describe H.D. as lacking agency over her craft. The work seems, at first glance, even more […]
May 29, 2019
Meditations in an Emergency: Ilya Kaminsky, Mad Men, and the Backdrop of War
in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money, our great country of money, we (forgive us) lived happily during the war. So ends […]
May 28, 2019
Thomas Merton’s Difficult Growth
In the April issue of Harper’s Magazine, Garry Wills (a writer I have long admired) wrote an intemperate screed about Thomas Merton (a writer I have admired even longer) in […]
May 28, 2019
Mitch Levenberg’s Principles of Uncertainty and Other Constants
As I was hovering at the border between writing poetry and writing fiction, I discovered a collection of short stories, Mitch Levenberg’s Principles of Uncertainty and Other Constants, which made […]
May 24, 2019
An Artist’s Life: An Interview with Marcia Butler, author of Pickle’s Progress
Marcia Butler’s debut novel, Pickle’s Progress, has been hailed by Michael Schaub of NPR as “Surprising and audacious…. Pickle’s Progress is a deeply weird novel that succeeds because of Butler’s willingness […]
May 23, 2019
The Sheer Will to Disrupt: A Conversation With Dylan Krieger
Dylan Krieger is a force in contemporary poetry. A self-described “divining rod of ungodly proportions,” Krieger has written Giving Godhead (Delete, 2017), which the New York Times declared, “the best […]
May 22, 2019
Close-Reading the Rhythm of a Thomas Pynchon Sentence
If you’ve read enough of my blog posts, you’ll likely realize that I have an abiding interest in the rhythm of sentences. In a blog post on first lines, I […]
May 21, 2019
“BEFORE THE THOUGHT HAS TIME TO CRYSTALLIZE”: HISTORY, TRANSLATION, AND CONSCIOUSNESS IN H.D.’S HELEN IN EGYPT
Introduction In recent literary scholarship, one sees a renewed interest in H.D.’s Helen in Egypt, particularly its daring feminist reading of history. This book-length poem is undoubtedly revolutionary in its […]
May 20, 2019
The Van Gogh Museum’s 10 Lessons for Writers
In April, I traveled to Amsterdam for a week (I know, my life is so hard), where I spent an afternoon in the Van Gogh Museum. The collection inspired me […]
May 17, 2019
“Some Assembly Required”: Les Figues Press, Artistic Community, and the Printed Book as an Occasion for Dialogue
Introduction For the past few decades, readers have witnessed a proliferation of small feminist presses run by women. These publishing projects, which include Leslie Scalapino’s O Books, Lyn Hejinian’s Tuumba […]
May 16, 2019
How To Piss Off Your Teacher
1) Actually major in texting under the table. 2) Send rude emails about your grades. Bonus points for bringing your parents into it. 3) Send emails that begin with “yo,” […]