In which a classic becomes relevant again When I heard the US had been eliminated from the Women’s World Cup the other day—and that Megan Rapinoe, who never misses a penalty, had in fact missed—I thought immediately of this poem by Ernest Thayer. It is a sports poem, if not a soccer/football one, and todayContinue reading “Somebody Else’s Poem, for Megan Rapinoe”
Category Archives: Literature
A byte of midweek reading…
Or, flash nonfiction Last week I published a short creative nonfiction piece in the Women* Writing Berlin Lab Magazine, something I’d been working on for a while that dealt with something from an even longer while ago. A lot of my recent work has confronted, examined, and/or come to terms with memory, of which thisContinue reading “A byte of midweek reading…”
Denial! Betrayal! C. S. Lewis!
Or, the Triduum Well, friends, here we are, in the sweet spot between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the night of vigils and multiple readings of Scripture. Lifelong literature student and irrevocable cultural Catholic that I am—and having spent much of the past week down with a flu that’s been going around—I’ve seized upon thisContinue reading “Denial! Betrayal! C. S. Lewis!”
Lit Review: CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS
Or, Sally Rooney part II As promised, I got around to Sally Rooney’s debut novel, 2017’s Conversations with Friends. I did enjoy it more than Normal People. For one thing, the title was a bit less misleading: Normal People sounds like it should be about people in their forties, and in fact the action endsContinue reading “Lit Review: CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS”
Stop what you’re doing and read THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY. Right now.
In which I am not kidding Many of us have just wrapped the first workday of the new Gregorian calendar year, post-holiday. Congratulations. Whatever you did, you did it, and I’m proud of you. I’m now going to order you to leave off even thinking about work and go read Sonya Renee Taylor’s The BodyContinue reading “Stop what you’re doing and read THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY. Right now.”
NaNoWriMo???
In which I take a month’s inventory November is National Novel Writing Month, as the US-based organization attempting to bully us into drafting 50,000 words would have us believe. I’ll mention it in passing to non-Americans who look at me as if I’ve just thrown in a dialect word, and, in a way, I have.Continue reading “NaNoWriMo???”
On Writing (About Other People)
In which there will be hot takes Hi all. This week I wanted to do another post about the act of writing, since I haven’t done one in a while, and since I’ve written much nonfiction in the past couple years even beyond what I do here. Moving to Berlin marked a shift in theContinue reading “On Writing (About Other People)”
Monologue: The Taxi Driver in “Leaving on a Jet Plane”
In which I give a background character (at best) a chance to shine Oh my God it is so cold. Pretty far from my ideal 6:53 a.m. Not that I minded driving twenty minutes out of our way right off the bat after this guy practically begged me to stop at his girlfriend’s place—the moreContinue reading “Monologue: The Taxi Driver in “Leaving on a Jet Plane””
Tiny Lit Review: NORMAL PEOPLE
In which I review a book that I anticipated having more than one paragraph to say about Friends, I was not a fan. I thought I was going to like it, in fact didn’t really prepare for the eventuality that I would not, so this put me at a loss. I often found Sally Rooney’sContinue reading “Tiny Lit Review: NORMAL PEOPLE”
A spot of publishing news!
In which I am in (and out) Because I’m a flash kind of gal lately: a short short story of mine entitled “The American Teenage Classic Graduation Farewell” appears in the forthcoming anthology Intermissions (out 1 November, Grattan Street Press). A printed thing for a nice change. I’ve been spotlighted in an author interview—under theContinue reading “A spot of publishing news!”