Poem of the Day: Liam Rector’s “Soon the City”
If you are a close reader of this blog, you’ve likely noticed that I’ve been posting an awful lot lately. I suppose it is time to finally come out of the closet: I am indeed the new chair of the English Department at the George Washington University. I have been happy to be part of…
Margaret Atwood’s hair sticks out in all directions, almost as if each curl has some obscure thought attached to it. Most of those thoughts lead to award-winning novels, such as The Handmaid’s Tale, about a Utopian society gone dangerously wrong as they often do in literature. Atwood’s latest novel, The Year of the Flood, also…
One Art The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master. Then practice losing farther, losing…
What do you think of when you hear the name, Michael Chabon? Comic books? Coming of age? Judaism? Pittsburgh? Movie adaptations? Chances are marijuana was probably not on that list. So when the lights dimmed in Lisner Auditorium this past Friday night and Chabon cracked the spine of his new collection of nonfiction essays, Manhood…
The Dead The dead are always looking down on us, they say. while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich, they are looking down through the glass bottom boats of heaven as they row themselves slowly through eternity. They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth, and when we…
Ghosts The first time I saw him he was standing in front of the Iranian embassy with his mother, or with whom I assumed was his mother. She wore a black bonnet like a black flower. He wore a black frock coat and a beige collar high under his chins. His linen was unimpeachable. His…