October 29, 2018
An Interview With Idra Novey
Idra Novey started her writing career as a poet, and she brings this lyrical sensibility to her two novels, the 2016 Ways to Disappear and her new book, out next […]
October 27, 2018
What I Mean When I Say Hakol Beseder
This Shabbat morning, I began composing an email to a physicist friend that began with: “We are all electrons and quarks, after all, at least according to your field, unless […]
October 27, 2018
Drafts, Part I: Revision Resistance
On October 20 I attended Cleveland Drafts, a daylong literary festival that snaked its way through a bookstore, a gallery, and three bars in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood. The event was […]
September 11, 2018
Luck, Lit, & Gutter Spouts
I was twenty-three years old when I won the Hopwood Award for Poetry. A recent college grad, I lived in a leaky apartment that I’d furnished with lawn furniture and […]
August 29, 2018
I’m Not a Robot; Remember Me
us The quest for the meaning of life may be the oldest and most infuriating of all time. I’m on that quest this week. To solve this age-old riddle once […]
August 1, 2018
When Things Fall Apart: Leadership in Desperate Times
I’ve been thinking about the connection between literature, politics, and leadership because I gave a talk, “When Things Fall Apart: Leadership in Desperate Times,” in James M. Van Wyck’s terrific […]
July 26, 2018
In the Dark
On Facebook, I watch a woman announce she’s just now starting to watch The Handmaid’s Tale. Twenty minutes into the first episode, she posts an update demanding to see an […]
July 9, 2018
Kondo-ing My Books, Part II: Signed, Sealed, and Decluttered
In Part 1 of this two-part series, I shared my attempts to declutter my bookshelves, a process that raised a taboo question: What to do with personally signed books that […]
June 30, 2018
Against the Single Effect
A common theory widely taught in creative writing classes is Edgar Allen Poe’s idea of the single effect, which argues that short stories should build towards producing one pre-conceived emotional […]
June 13, 2018
Mix-Tape V: Featuring CantoMundo Poets
On June 22 & 23, CantoMundo, a fellowship organization dedicated to Latinx poetry and poetics, will hold its public readings at Barnard College. (Here’s more information on attending the event). I’ve written […]
June 3, 2018
Little Monsters: On Language {Enunciation}
With her severed tongue the shewolf Scoops live water from the jaws of a cloud And again becomes whole —“Burning Shewolf,” Vasko Popa (trans. by Charles Simic) Upon […]
May 4, 2018
Stuff People Say When You Tell Them You Write Poetry
1) Is this a hoax? 2) And they pay you for that? 3) And you tell people this? 4) Does your husband know? 5) Is that still a thing? […]