Posts by author
Sam Riley
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You Know When the Internet Makes You Mad?
Internet-based commenting is one of those fork-in-the-road situations: you can take the high road or there is always the low road, which you may pass on the way to slurring slums, and then there’s the insult inferno. Navigate the pathways…
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What’s Up With Today’s Reading Habits?
The current state of long-form reading and reading habits among students has everything to do with the increasing amount of college attendees in this country and going further back, the GI Bill and its social consequences on subsequent generations. This…
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NANO Fiction vs. IRS
NANO Fiction, the bi-annual publication of flash-fiction/micro essay/ prose poems, was denied nonprofit 501(c)(3) status because the IRS deemed the journal pornography. Three months prior to their nonprofit application, they published an issue featuring the photography of Traci Matlock and…
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Humiliation is for Everybody
NPR Books is dissecting humiliation in this author interview with Wayne Koestenbaum (whose has a very recent book aptly titled “Humiliation”). Humiliation is the only way to describe certain life experiences—it’s both familiar and completely unavoidable—but it turns out it’s…
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A Night of Facial Hair
Walter Green, the designer behind our beloved Write Like a Motherfucker mugs, graphically profiled Whiskey Waxing at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a night dedicated to facial hair, in its multitudinous forms, appreciated by many-a-Bay Area folk. Check…
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“Getting bin Laden”
Nicholas Schmidle’s article in the New Yorker delves into the details of the night in Abottabad when Osama Bin Laden was killed. The band of 23 Navy SEALs concealed within two Black Hawks, modified to fly undetected into Pakistani territory.…
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“Of course we had no money. Of course we had no love.”
Andrew Sean Greer remembers the night Clinton was elected, living in New York at the end of the Reagan and Bush Republican era, being young and wanting to be a part in gay history in the 90’s. This piece is…
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Writers and their Snack Choices
What kind of caloric encouragement do writers need to get through a day? Snack choices are among the most important quotidian decisions we make, and often we’re consistent with the ones that work best. Our very own Wendy MacNaughton charts…
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Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusement Coming Soon
A brand new festival called Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusement is making its way to Chicago this September, with the aim of reinventing Vaudeville in a contemporary context with some hybrid musical/carnivalesque acts. If it seems like this is a…
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Remember Your Favorite Teacher?
Dave Eggers writes about the teacher that inspired him to write—a relatable meditation on wanting to impress his favorite high school mentor who initially piqued his interest in the literary arts, and how this memory extends to the importance of…
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Writing About Home
“You try having a father who isn’t equal to you in size. It’s not easy. His boots are always bigger. His hands are always bigger. He can reach things I can’t. At fifteen I find my voice is deeper than…