The Bloodier Your Hands, the More Loyal You Become to the System: A Conversation with Sarah Langan
The thing about cults, they indoctrinate. They whitewash. They blind us to better alternatives.
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Voices on Addiction: Last Drunk
In the past, getting the ball rolling has proven to be a Sisyphean task. Max admits he has a problem and is pretty sure he can solve it. Alone.
National Poetry Month: Daniella Toosie-Watson
Make no mistake, my dad is alive / in this poem. His glasses are on, his skin is white, / and his jokes are bad.
A Dance of One’s Own: Nicolette Polek’s Bitter Water Opera
The return of someone deceased is a common enough trope, but where it is normally horrific . . . Polek initially runs jolly with it.
National Poetry Month: Jai Hamid Bashir
Then, there is another creature: jewel-eyed / like a housefly’s wings in paradise, caught / in the shape of a girl.
Everything in Our Lived Presence is Interconnected: A Conversation with Ellen van Neerven
Sport is seen as characterizing a nation. If there’s a sense of injustice and inequality in the fabric of what a nation says it is, then how does that trickle down to everyday life?
Back into The Garden: The (Re)turn at the End of Ross Gay’s Poem “To the Mulberry Tree”
Close Reads is an essays column exploring a specific page, paragraph, or sentence from a book, film, piece of music, or other media.
National Poetry Month: Suzi F. Garcia
none of us / want to be where we’re from, and that is the one thing / we have in common anymore.
National Poetry Month: Chrysanthemum
Stupefied by proof, / I mock a springtime chest, / needle what’s manmade—
National Poetry Month: KB Brookins
Sometimes I miss home and then I eat a sandwich. / Sometimes I want to call my cousin, tell her all her bullshit—
Sophomore efforts: A Conversation Between Rachel Khong and Crystal Hana Kim
“Debut” holds the ring of promise, where disappointment feels intrinsic to the word “sophomore.” For better or worse, people love to call second books “sophomore” novels, with all its accompanying connotations.
How to Feed a Dying Body
The difficulty comes when patients learn that dying or waiting to die is still living, and therefore the command for narrative lingers.