Ignore films like Memento when writing, Steve Almond argues, and instead focus on old-fashioned devices like narrative, plot, and character development.
Once Upon A Time
Not So Smart
Ava Kofman writes about Disney’s Smart House becoming a reality (or just making our lives more difficult).
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Of Transatlantic Manoeuvres and Colourful Sweaters
Our favourite American editor of an across-the-pond publication - Emily Bobrow of More Intelligent Life - chats with The Morning News about Anglo-American stylistic differences: "The English work hard but pretend not to, while Americans often strain to look busy."
Salton Sea as Holy Land
“Every journal is a confessional. If it’s in the first person, it cannot help but be. Unless the author of it lies to himself—and that makes it even more of a confessional. For some reason, travel brings out confessions one would never make at home. I am trying to draw the rake of my journal over the landscape. Perhaps I will uncover something.” Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s new collection of travel journals, Writing Across the Landscape, is out now. Travel on back to The Millions for Kate McCahill’s essay on traveling with books.
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Should’ve Known Better
“Grief doesn’t only disturb life; it disturbs the way we talk about life. As myriad aspects of our existence are questioned and reexamined in the wake of a death, so too is our relationship with the language we rely on for our grief’s expression.” This track-by-track take on Sufjan Stevens’s Carrie & Lowell from The Rumpus is really just a magnificent, emotive piece on elegy.
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Writers on Writing
Recommended listening: Writers on Writing, a playlist of TED talks from NPR that pair well with our own Nick Ripatrazone's essay on "vertical writing" and Michelle Huneven's breakdown of "The Trouble With Writing."
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The Chance of a Lifetime
It’s famously easy to get scammed on OkCupid. Sarah Hepola (of Salon) knew as much when she joined. But when someone who claimed to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt sent her a flirty message, she figured... what could she do?
Songs of Experience
More on Maurice Sendak's last book, My Brother's Book, and the influence of William Blake.
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The Eternal Mystery
Recommended reading: Jonathan Russell Clark, who's written for us many, many times before, considers "The Eternal Mystery of the Reclusive Writer" for Literary Hub.