February 19, 2016
Un-Valentine’s Day
Just as Humpty Dumpty celebrated un-birthdays, some of us at the University of Michigan on Monday celebrated Un-Valentine’s Day. Our cupcakes were topped with hearts, yes; but they were also […]
November 25, 2015
Twelve Things
What follows are twelve things I’ve read or reread lately (and which may, on some level, speak to one another), and for which I’m grateful: Dean Young: Some things, like […]
October 31, 2014
Boo
It’s Halloween; let’s light the cauldron. Shakespeare’s weird sisters, when making their hell-broth, tossed in “Eye of newt and toe of frog, / Wool of bat and tongue of dog”—and, […]
September 30, 2014
The Most Important Thing in the Universe
Jennifer Michael Hecht, at the end of her poetry collection Funny, writes, “Jokes are one part suddenness and one part grief. That’s why jokes are the most important thing in […]
July 20, 2009
Monday, or “Moon Day”
In Six Memos for the Next Millennium, the late, great Italo Calvino discusses five of the “values, qualities, or peculiarities of literature that are very close to [his] heart.” (Why […]