First and Last Songs: The Extinct Song of the Kaua‘i ‘Ö‘ö
I wanted to talk to someone who might have heard the last animal at the end of its species’ five-million-year run on earth.
Posts by author
Ben Shattuck
6 posts
Ben Shattuck is a graduate and former Teaching-Writing Fellow of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the director of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency, the curator of the Dedee Shattuck Gallery, and a recipient of the 2017 PEN America Best Debut Short Story Award. His writing can be found in the Harvard Review, Lit Hub, The Common, Salon, The New Republic, The Paris Review Daily, and other publications. He lives in coastal Massachusetts, and spends most of his time painting -- his work can be seen here: www.benshattuck.com.
Philip Roth at His Old “Jewing Grounds”
I can’t think of anybody I’d be more intimidated to interview than Philip Roth. He won the National Book Award at twenty-seven and later the Pulitzer; he has thirty books…
Batuman’s Kafka
Franz Kafka, a hunch-backed best friend, a violated will, an escape from Nazis, ten safe-deposit boxes spanning two countries, smuggled papers, missing letters, fifty feet of files, four Israeli lawyers,…
What’s Your Writing Ritual if Not Dozing Off with Metal Balls in Your Hands?
How do we write? Supposedly Benjamin Franklin, after depriving himself of sleep, would sit with metal balls in his hands, his arms dangling at his sides. He would fall asleep,…
The Last Book I Loved: Sailing Alone Around the World
“Remember, Lord, my ship is small and thy sea is so wide!” – Joshua Slocum, sailing through a storm south of Tierra del Fuego. When Joshua Slocum (author of Sailing…
English Authors Offended By the Present Tense
England: land of quibblers. Some of the nation’s top writers are at the throat of the present tense. Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, said, “I just…