“An ideal essay is hard to define, but easy to point to. An ideal essay mines the “I” in efforts of high exposition. It is driven by a need to testify or witness, and demands the same of its reader. It is a glimpse of something uncomfortably recognizable, a requiem for the quotidian, a look over the newly-gilded edge.” Samantha Tucker Iacovetto writes about “Defining the Ideal Essay” for Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog
The Ideal Essay
“Is it possible to overcome the horrible legacy of slavery and find decolonial love?”
Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, sits down with Paula M.L. Moya for a great interview focusing on race at The Boston Review.
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“In the morning, I don’t talk to anyone”
Roxana Robinson (who’s written for us) explores the complications of writing first thing in the morning.
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Dostoyevsky, Babel, Brodsky, Pussy Riot?
In their closing statements, Russian dissidents du jour Pussy Riot cited the authors who inspired them and placed themselves in Russia's rich history of imprisoning their artists. Also check out Carol Rumens's excellent translation of the song that landed Pussy Riot in hot water.
Is it just a Russian thing?
Jennie Erdal asks, "What is the modern equivalent of the philosophical novel?"
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Calvin!
"Calvin and Hobbes is certainly not a text about queerness, yet when I returned to it at this altered point in my life, the strip suddenly seemed to describe things that resonated with me now: what it was like to live in a world where expressing your realest self is so often penalized, and the value of finding a second family, a close friend or friends, if your blood family fails to understand or accept the truest version of you." Gabrielle Bellot at The Literary Hub explains why Calvin and Hobbes is great literature.
Conversations over Stolen Food (in Illicit Spaces)
The Faster Times offers up a new dialogue from dynamic duo Jon Cotner & Andy Fitch’s "Conversations over Stolen Food," which seamlessly segues from Astroglide and Fung Wah buses to Alaskan Brown Bears, and includes a run-in with New York Park Patrol. Images by Paper Monument editor Dushko Petrovich are added eye candy.
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5 steps to authordom!
So you wanna be an author? Here are 5 painful and incredibly difficult steps to becoming an author, from Craked's Robert Brockway.
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