January 9, 2018
That Never Happened
The memory came back to me today while I was washing dishes and privately fuming over a Facebook thread. A Facebook thread! Such a trivial thing to get worked up […]
July 5, 2017
A Writer’s Romance with Screens
When I can’t put my finger on what I’m feeling, I want to Shazam it or press Control+F, and then I realize I’m turning into a machine. In Adrienne Rich’s […]
April 17, 2016
Trauma Privilege
It was November 8, 2015, at 11:09 p.m. I know because I took a screenshot. In a Facebook group I moderate of over 200 local writers, a woman addressed a […]
October 25, 2015
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Irrelevance
With the American government sending drones overseas, with our military involved over the past decade in conflict after dirty conflict; with the largest incarcerated population in the world, and […]
December 29, 2011
Mix Tape: Another Year’s Best List
For my last post of the year, here’s a look back at ten of my favorite literary tidbits from Mix Tape 2011—the sublime, the ridiculous, and a few things not […]
September 23, 2011
Some Notes on The “New” Facebook, Ubiquity, and the Opposite of All That
Maybe it’s just me, but the last several weeks seem to have been extremely busy with momentous events to which I cannot speak individually, let alone collectively: hurricane rain and […]
August 11, 2011
Mix Tape: Wish You Were Here (“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl…”)
Charles Simic on the dying art of postcard writing. These folks will handwrite your e-mails and mail them, doodle or lipstick kiss included, for a more personal touch. You’re on […]
August 4, 2011
Mix Tape: Braaaains…and Other Food for Thought
George Romero fans take notice! Famous writers’ favorite snacks. (Did canned meat–straight from the tin–and apples really help fuel Fitzgerald?) Robert Pinsky on the horrors of bad book reviews. Why […]
December 3, 2010
Marking Passages ??? Transitions, The Internet, and Ritual
Last week, my partner of six years and I went to the City Clerk’s office to sign a piece of paper, registering with the city that we have what they […]
April 16, 2010
Make It New?
Preeminent poetry critic Marjorie Perloff came to campus this week. The lecture I attended, “Unoriginal Genius: Poetry by Other Means in the New Century,” argued towards the idea of “genius” […]
March 15, 2010
Friend Me
Other than that I, and statistically, you (450 million, my dear legion), love it, what’s the point of Facebook? Seven-ish years after their founding, four after their explosion, social networking […]