In his essay, Baxter discusses the degree to which Americans “have distrusted silence and its parent condition, stillness.” …more

Late last night I sat in the Labor & Delivery waiting room in the hospital where my brother and sister-in-law were preparing for the birth of their first child.  They had checked in early that morning, but the baby still hadn’t arrived.  I was the only family member who could make it to the hospital, so I waited alone, except for the anxious grandmother across from me who had been waiting all day for her first grandchild to be delivered.  I thought about Raymond Carver’s story “A Small, Good Thing,” and wondered if I should reach out to this woman in the same way Ann Weiss does with the family whose son is undergoing surgery. …more

Tamim Ansary is the author of West of Kabul, East of New York and the forthcoming book Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. He is also the facilitator of the the oldest continuous free writers’ workshop in the country. …more

“The style in the second collection is more developed, more established. I feel like I’m more mature as a storyteller now and I also know what kind of stories I want to tell.”

…more

“The style in the second collection is more developed, more established. I feel like I’m more mature as a storyteller now and I also know what kind of stories I want to tell.”

…more

Tamim Ansary is the author of West of Kabul, East of New York and the forthcoming book Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. He is also the facilitator of the San Francisco Writers Workshop, the oldest continuous free writers’ workshop in the country. …more