June 19, 2019
Ken Kesey’s “Keyhole of Literature”
In an essay published in The New York Times in 1989 (incidentally, the year I was born), Ken Kesey recounts a writing lesson he once received from short story writer […]
June 3, 2019
The Doodles of Famous Authors
I’m not shy about my love of words, letters, and even whole sentences. So imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon a truly impressive feat of cultural curation over at […]
April 22, 2019
Do We Write for Others or Ourselves?
Last year, I wrote a piece for this blog about Jorge Luis Borges’s short story “The Secret Miracle,” arguing that it was the ultimate consolation for a writer, because it […]
January 23, 2019
On Borges’s “The Secret Miracle”
For many writers, nothing is more exciting than seeing in some work of fiction, be it a short story or a novel or a play or even a movie, a […]
September 2, 2014
The Wonderful Worlds of Borges
I recently came across an edited set of interviews with one of the true masters, Jorges Luis Borges. The book is Borges at Eighty: Conversations. I first encountered the Argentinian […]
July 26, 2013
Distant Lands, Close Quarters
When I put my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to bed at night, the last thing I tell her is “I love you a lot.” The “a lot” feels crucial—not as an intensifier […]
July 5, 2013
On Recommended Books
I’ve just returned from The Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College, where I met wonderfully interesting people, received helpful feedback on my writing, and, as happens at such […]