Baker, Birdwatcher
In nature writing, it’s not uncommon for “the ever-changing dividing line between the animal and the human,” or something similarly abstract, to be a central theme throughout a book, or at least something that critics and reviewers like to write about.
The Best Books of Summer
What should you be reading this year at the beach, on the road, and on vacation? Check out our list for this summer's best picks.
Sight Lines: An Interview with Poet Sandra Marchetti
Sandra Marchetti is the author of Confluence, a collection of poetry from Sundress Publications (2015). She’s also written four chapbooks of poetry and lyric essays, and she is a lecturer in interdisciplinary studies at Aurora University near Chicago. I interviewed her about her latest chapbook, Sight Lines.
What Does Happiness Smell Like Don’t Say Madeleines
Internet legend has it that Sephora employees will give any customer up to three free samples . The one time I witnessed a Sephora employee giving a customer free samples, said customer took offense. “Try this for your skin,” said the employee.
The linguistic inventiveness of FANNY HILL’s pornography
If anyone tries to tell you that John Cleland’s Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is a highbrow literary classic, don’t believe them. This 18th-century novel, one of the first major English-language pornographic novels, is pure smut.
Fiction Responding to Fiction: Flannery O’Connor and Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen often tells stories in his songs which investigate the human condition, the lyrics following a narrative arc with a clear beginning, middle and end. It is therefore not surprising that fiction is one of the places where he finds inspiration.
Review: THE VERSIONS OF US by Laura Barnett
The Versions of Us Laura Barnett Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2016 416 pp; $26.00 Buy: hardcover | eBook The Versions of Us, Laura Barnett’s tapestry romance, is in many ways Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” fleshed into a full-novel. The novel’s main style device employs just what the title promises:
“Musings on Motherhood are Not Enough”: On the Perils and Joys of Parenting Poetry
Recently I was looking at calls for poetry and I came across one that listed the editor’s preferences for the type of work that appealed to her. She listed the things which, in her mind, made a poem worthy of calling itself a poem.
What Writers Can Learn From Visual Artists About Patterns & Meaning
Patterns are everywhere and we rely on them to understand ourselves and the world. Theoretical physicists and cosmologists attempt to unlock the mysteries of our existence by searching for patterns. Behavioral scientists, psychologists, psychobiologists, criminologists, sociologist and cognitive scientists seek insight into human nature by studying patterns.
Duly Noted: on Footnotes and their Place in Translation
When I was translating Some Day, by Shemi Zarhin, my first published translation which came out with New Vessel Press in 2013, the question of footnotes was constantly on my mind. There was so much to that book, set in Israel, that an English reader wouldn’t know about.