September 30, 2019
Why We Should Call it Art
There’s a tendency in the writing community to be suspicious of the word “art.” For a lot of people, the word is pretentious, a grandiose attempt to elevate our writing […]
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 15, 2019
Lynda Barry & Matt Groening on the Power of Creativity
I recently had the pleasure of seeing Lynda Barry and Matt Groening in conversation at Cuyahoga County Public Library’s William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series. Among other things, Barry […]
April 20, 2019
On Slow Reading, Considering, and Consuming
It’s long been understood that going to an art museum doesn’t necessarily mean one desires to look at art, at least not for prolonged, potentially edifying periods. Articles like Artnet’s […]
April 13, 2019
Review: Rabindranath Tagore, Selected Poems
Tagore, Rabindranath. Selected Poems. Translated by William Radice. Penguin Modern Classics (India), 208 pages. Some writers write different things the same way over and over again. All of Emily […]
November 8, 2017
Tabloid Art History Rewrites Artistic Cannon
Recent posts in Flavorwire and A.V. Club brought my attention to an intriguing Twitter account, Tabloid Art History, run by Elise Bell, Chloe Esslemont, and Mayanne Soret, which has actually […]
March 29, 2017
Confessions of a Collector
I received my first painting as a gift from grandparents (art collectors themselves) when I was four. They had commissioned a Louisiana artist to paint a small oil on canvas […]
October 3, 2016
Contemporary Ekphrasis
Last week at the Montana Book Festival the poet Michael Earl Craig and I conducted a workshop entitled “Contemporary Ekphrasis,” and for funsies I thought I’d post my “lecture” notes […]
January 31, 2016
Kanye West’s New Slave Daguerreotypes
Kanye West premiered his song and video “New Slaves” by projecting it on the exterior walls of 66 buildings throughout the world. The shots in the video have only two […]
October 23, 2015
“This Balance Hangs in a Place That Is Not” : The Work of Michael Hafftka
In A Retrospective: Large Oils 1985-2003, the catalogue accompanying the exhibition of Michael Hafftka’s work at the Housatonic Museum of Art, Michael Bordsky compares the artist and the “creatures” of his paintings […]
June 17, 2014
Sugimoto’s Darkness
You’re unlikely to find a more beautiful book than Hiroshi Sugimoto, designed by Takaaki Matsumodo. The book is cloth-bound in shadow-blue, with a slight sheen, only a shallow stamp of […]
August 20, 2013
Virtues of Madness and Vices of Honey: An Interview with Mary Ruefle
[This interview was preceded by an introduction; you can read that here.] Last year, Ruefle and I corresponded via mail; our correspondence is printed below. You can find out more […]