Posts by author

P.E. Garcia

  • Teaching Through Discomfort

    Elicit feedback. Let them know it is OK to not like certain poems, and explore moments of disappointment and discomfort. Have them address the authors directly. Encourage them to see the authors as peers. For the Kenyon Review blog, Dora…

  • Reading Poetry Aloud to Keep It Alive

    So if, like me, you’re often inclined to bemoan the state of poetry, to assume it is shamefully neglected by our culture and by the young in particular, then do yourself a favor and don’t just read, listen. Take yourself…

  • Bechdel on Broadway

    Part of what’s fascinating about the Broadway adaptation, with its script and lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori, is how closely it adheres to the outline and details of Bechdel’s story—yet so differs from the book that…

  • How Street Lights Changed Literature

    The Public Domain Review looks at how the introduction of street lights in 17th-century London forever changed literature.

  • Creating a Contrary Character

    I think she’s half pursuing these conventions of romantic love, and half rejecting them. Which produces this kind of contrariness. There’s this line in the first chapter where she says, “I only want what I hate.” These contradictions of desire…

  • The 2015 Payton James Freeman Essay Prize

    The Rumpus, along with the Freeman Family, and the Drake University Department of English, is proud to be a part of the second annual Payton James Freeman Essay Prize. Please take a look at the submission requirements below (no entry…

  • The Kings, Queens, and Pawns of Poetry

    For the Kenyon Review blog, Amit Majmudar compares creating poetic style to playing a game of chess and looks at how poets reach that elusive checkmate.

  • A Century of Saul Bellow

    I think of myself as a working stiff. If I got up in the morning, and say to myself ‘Well, great writer, what are you going to do today?’ I’d be paralyzed. To celebrate his 100th birthday, NPR takes a…

  • Trigger Warnings for Teachers, Too

    It sucks to read through an essay and just abruptly read a student’s usage of rape as an analogy for, like, soccer. For Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer discusses the importance of trigger warnings in the classroom, for students and teachers alike.

  • The World’s Oldest Book on Tea

    Tea has a myriad of shapes. If I may speak vulgarly and rashly, tea may shrink and crinkle like a Mongol’s boots. Or it may look like the dewlap of a wild ox, some sharp, some curling as the eaves…

  • Frank Norris’s Early Cinematic Style

    At The Public Domain Review, Henry Giardina examines how the then-recent invention of motion picture influenced Frank Norris’s novel McTeague and the development of naturalism.

  • Holding Evangelicals Accountable

    Growing up in a slew of Evangelical churches, I saw this system of governance deployed to handle anything from adultery to domestic violence to pedophilia. And in each instance, this system has failed to stop abusers or protect victims. At…