Consider this hypothetical. You’re standing in your kitchen, cutting slices of cheese with a razor-sharp carving knife. You realize there are such things as cheese knives, but you don’t have one. For those readers currently languishing in suburban opulence, who can’t imagine someone not owning a cheese knife, I’m here to tell you such people… Continue reading Ok Boomer
Tag: zombie culture
Read my latest at Splice Today . . .
On Knowing If You’re Any Good
If you’re a writer, you’ll live your life not knowing if you’re any good. And you’ll die not knowing. I think John Berryman said that. After Phil Levine published his first book of poems, people said, yeah, but can you do it again? Then he did it again. Then they said, yeah, but have… Continue reading On Knowing If You’re Any Good
Writing the Hard Thing
If I could tell you the number of stories and novels I’ve begun writing and not finished, we’d be here too long. But “not finished” doesn’t mean “discarded.” It means what it says. The difficulty comes when I’ve convinced myself that I’m one sort of writer (the consistent, cheerfully productive kind) as opposed the other,… Continue reading Writing the Hard Thing
The Myth of Making It
I don't often reblog other writing here, but this one is worth the trouble. The author is Soraya Roberts. — M If the most financially and critically successful artists don’t feel successful, maybe there’s something wrong with how we think about success. Source: The Myth of Making It
Solving climate change one slick magazine at a time.
Read my latest in Splice Today: https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/jonathan-franzen-can-t-solve-climate-change-for-anyone-who-matters
Maybe being a success-bot isn’t the way after all?
The Peanut Gallery: Purveyors of Fine Hatred Since 1880
When I began teaching as a graduate student, publishing in magazines, and generally moving my life forward in visible ways, I learned a difficult lesson that accompanies progress: people don’t like it when you succeed. They don’t want to see it. They don’t want to know about it. And if they become aware that you… Continue reading The Peanut Gallery: Purveyors of Fine Hatred Since 1880
The Introspective Ferret’s Guide to Parties
The quiet introspective ferret feels he has only been to two kinds of parties: those where people assess each other from behind smokescreens of shallow small talk and those where people get as drunk and as high as possible to avoid being aware of such assessment. Office / department parties tend to be a blend… Continue reading The Introspective Ferret’s Guide to Parties
The Precession of Symbols: Nocturnal Dance Steps, Speculation, and a Fish in the Moon
blue moon—n. 1. the second full moon occuring within a calendar month; 2. informal once in a blue moon: very rarely; almost never. "blue moon." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 31 Aug. 2012. Writing counter-interpolative communiques on the night of a blue moon, the Speculator must observe the same ancient… Continue reading The Precession of Symbols: Nocturnal Dance Steps, Speculation, and a Fish in the Moon
The Writing Expedition 