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Lyz Lenz

Lyz’s writing has been published in the New York Times Motherlode, Jezebel, Aeon, Pacific Standard, and others. Her book on midwestern churches is forthcoming from Indiana University Press. She has her MFA from Lesley and skulks about on Twitter @lyzl. Lyz is a member of The Rumpus Advisory Board and a full-time staff writer for the Columbia Journalism Review.
  • Lyz Lenz

    Every Editors Nightmare

    “The publisher functions more like an executive producer on a movie,” says the nonfiction author Susan Orlean. A New Yorker writer steeped in its culture of obsessive fact-checking, Orlean has had the converse publishing experience to Shane’s. “I remember being…

  • Lyz Lenz

    Writing Under the Influence of Catholicism

    William Giraldi talks about writing in spite of Catholicism: The Catholic O’Connor, in other words, has no Catholic agenda when she sits at the campfire to tell her story—across her singular canon all is chaos in search of grace, all is enigma…

  • Lyz Lenz

    Evil Loves Tomorrow

    What I do know is that love reckons with the past and evil reminds us to look to the future. Evil loves tomorrow because peddling in possibility is what abusers do. At my worst, I know that I’ve wanted the…

  • Lyz Lenz

    Weekly Geekery

    Twitter isn’t always toxic. The technology of the dinosaur epic. Score one for lady gamers. Can math solve questions of authorship? Toys are as creepy as you think.

  • Lyz Lenz

    The Art of the Shoe

    Duality is deeply embedded in the elemental technology that separates our feet from the ground on which we tread. As a container for spiritual meaning, footwear is laden with wishes, both benevolent and malign. Shoes can redeem, or they can…

  • Lyz Lenz

    Mat Johnson on Writing

    In an interview with Tobias Carroll for Hazlitt magazine, Mat Johnson talks about writing, humor, and fantasy: But writing in general sometimes is like a dream. You might recognize things from your life and there are pieces of yourself in there, but…

  • Lyz Lenz

    Weekly Geekery

    Is the Hulk going to own Gawker? What’s actually happening with Twitter? Don’t freak out, but cities lose art all the time. Does power corrupt? Or do institutions corrupt? Technology is bringing medieval torture back.

  • Lyz Lenz

    Authors, Goodreads Isn’t for You

    In response to a recent scuffle between a Goodreads reviewer and an author, BookRiot offers this advice to authors: But it’s not just the one-or-two-star reviews. I also don’t think authors should respond to positive reviews, even to say thanks…

  • Lyz Lenz

    Jeb Bush in English Class

    When the Huffington Post revealed that Jeb Bush misinterpreted The Scarlet Letter in order to justify the public shaming of unwed mothers, the Internet imagined how he would interpret other classic works of literature.

  • Lyz Lenz

    In Memoriam: Headless Woman

    Vincent Musetto, the author of the infamous New York Post headline, “Headless Woman in Topless Bar” died on June 9th. The New York Times has this obituary. The writers of newspaper headlines generally toil in anonymity, and over time a…

  • Lyz Lenz

    Weekly Geekery

    Klingon: Where intellectual property and language collide. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. Poverty is all in your head. Really. After this expose, they are going to need an even darker net.…

  • Lyz Lenz

    Intergenerational Cycle of Crap

    Gabriel Roth has some hard truths about The Poky Little Puppy, and he’s not wrong. Millions of people enjoyed The Poky Little Puppy as children, because it was cheap and because, being children, they had no standards. They grew up to be…