Columns
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Two Poems
Once I walked deep into the woods of my body where a cow was softly lowing and the sun was setting over a lake filled with swans.
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Magic and Beauty and Wonder: a Conversation with Aaron Burch
“The real magic of a piece comes out when you let a work become what it needs to become, and when you let go of original intent. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately: a lot of short stories,…
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A Hollow Kingdom All My Own
I write in the margins of existence. Between shifts. During bus rides. In the quiet hours when my neighbors finally stop screaming or blaring out the trash they call music. My laptop’s held together with duct tape and stubborn hope,…
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Given Limits Exist, Streets, Oblivion
I don’t want to be at peace. Outside, the buffalograss rails at the houses. Terracotta storms the bougainvillea. Each street in any direction is directionless. I’m beginning
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Mouth and Muscle
In Tierney’s shows, hockey runs on two blades: muscle and mouth. You need the athletic strength, speed, and skill — and if an opponent asks you, “Nice onesie, does it come in mens?” You need to be able to shoot…
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The National Shutdown
Tomorrow, Friday January 30th, there will be a national shutdown to protest the ongoing, egregious violence being perpetrated by ICE and other federal law enforcement agents in Minneapolis and all across the country. In solidarity, we won’t be posting any…
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Helga Seeks the Unicorn
Helga met her boyfriend, Adam, in college at a party. They’ve been dating for seven years, which is long enough to accept as a necessary albeit boring part of life, like filing taxes or going to the dentist. At one…
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A Geometry of Silence
“Sometimes I think the house should be the one to speak. Let the drywall testify to how long we went without touching. Let the baseboards admit how often I cleaned, hoping order would quiet the ache. Let the doorjamb where…
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The Cost of Ambition in Allie Tagle-Dokus’s “Lucky Girl”
But while the focus of the plot revolves around childhood fame, its core deals with what ambition can cost an artist
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“This Is Not a Drill”: Maggie Nelson’s New Book, “The Slicks”
…Her sensitivity to complicated dialogues about Taylor Swift and Sylvia Plath is well considered
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The Pink Wooly Mammoth in the Corner: A Conversation with Rachel Eliza Griffiths
“Once I had a draft, I could step back and some of what I do love in the writing process—revision and craft, and rewriting, rewriting, rewriting—could come and help me. Writing this book felt like using guerrilla tactics to get…
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The Two-Sentence Outline that Defines the Form: An Interview with George Saunders
“Usually, I try to make things as brief as I can (my model is one of those wind-up toys and I wind it up and drop it on the floor and it races right under the couch. The end). But…