“I think what I would really most like to write about is palm trees and bougainvillea and hummingbirds. I would like to go into the desert and write about salamanders and the Grand Canyon, but history keeps rupturing my experience because politics are everywhere.” National Book Award winner Robin Coste Lewis on overcoming brain damage and becoming a poet. Pair with Andrew Kay’s Millions essay on the power of poetry.
The Voyage of the Poet
Artisans of the Bardic Breath
A couple weeks back, Jonathan Callahan published a crackerjack essay here on Volume 2 of Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle. Little did we know that, even as he was writing it, he was being interviewed about his own literary debut, The Consummation of Dirk, by none other than…Rick Moody.
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Let’s Get Ready to Reaaaaad
Recommended Reading (Super Welterweight Edition): Here’s a pair of articles to prepare you for tonight’s championship bout between Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
The Myth of Farmer
In an essay for The Morning News, Matt Evans takes a look at "how an unfinished autobiography and a 1980s biopic turned Frances Farmer, one of cinema’s most radiant stars, into a lobotomized zombie."
5-Year-Old Library Thief
A Massachusetts mom said police went too far when they paid her and her 5-year-old daughter a visit for failing to return their library books on time.
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The Great American Sneaker
For every book lover who also values comfortable footwear, New Balance has announced a line of sneakers inspired by great American literature.
Devastating Stories
Recommended Reading: "The Misanthropic Genius of Joy Williams" in The New York Times Magazine. Her latest collection of short stories, The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories, which was included on our most anticipated list, will be released on September 8th. “When I asked Williams what she wants out of a great story, she replied, ‘I want to be devastated in some way.’”
Can You Learn to Love the Adverb?
The saying goes that "the road to hell is paved with adverbs," but at Beyond the Margins Robin Black makes the opposite argument. "I want you to love adverbs," she begins, but "more than that, I want you to believe, as I do, that adverbs are the part of speech that best captures the human condition."