Posts by author
Victor Luo
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The Wheelbarrow is Real
When we read this poem in an anthology, we tend not to think of the chickens as real chickens, but as platonic chickens, some ideal thing,” William Logan, the scholar who recently discovered Mr. Marshall’s identity, said in an interview.…
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Competitive Writing
If you win, then you talk to the other winners, congratulating and praising them. If you lose, then you read through your submission, noting mistakes that weren’t there five minutes before, wondering where you went wrong,” she adds. “You tell…
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For Sale: Nick Carraway’s House
The house appears to blend in with its landscape, almost disappear beside canopy trees until it’s in danger of becoming an afterthought. There is nothing particularly regal about it. It’s the type of place one of Fitzgerald’s characters would have…
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Fight Club, Now G-Rated
How do you share your favorite books with your kids when those books aren’t quite G-rated? Over at Mashable, Chuck Palahniuk performs a reading from his nonexistent book, Fight Club 4 Kids.
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Revenge Writing
After about two years of writing essays, I learned about something I will hereby in these pages name the Passive-Aggressive Writer’s Conundrum: People, particularly non-writers, are an optimistic, delusional bunch. If you mention people in an unflattering way without naming…
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When to Trash Your Novel
How does a writer come to the conclusion that the a novel-in-progress needs to be ditched? Over at Lit Hub, Laura Dave reflects on the cathartic despair and relief of making the big decision: It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment…
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We Shall Not Ban Comics in English Class!
Recently, Tara Shultz, a college student at Crafton Hills College, expressed her shock and disgust at the “pornographic and violent” content in the selection of graphic novels (Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi) used in her English class…
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The Spooky Senses of Quintan Ana Wikswo
When we are in love, when we are in trauma, when we are fighting for survival or captivated by a hypnotic sunrise, our brains create a visual dreamscape—surreal, shape-shifting, abstracted—that stays with us as long as we live. Over at…
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Against Allegory
Don’t you hate allegory? Seems to me that allegory was created to separate readers into two groups: people that understand allegory, and people who don’t. Over at Huffington Post, Lisa K. Friedman explores allegory and other literary devices and wonders if…
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Poetry for the Shopping Mall
Ah, happy food court! Peaceful kingdom! Is it possible that all these tables now are empty Where once families did jostle for a feasting place? Over at The Toast, a lovely and timely poem, “Ode to an Abandoned Shopping Mall,”…