Columns
-
City Nature
When I look at the skyline of Manhattan, I get a feeling similar to when I look at the Rocky Mountains. People living in urban environments can have a relationship with the natural world, and in my writing I like…
-
Data vs. Instincts
In the world of publishing, everything’s a gamble. How do successful editors manage to push out bestsellers? Is it good instincts, or data-driven predictions? Turns out, it’s a mix of both, and the influences are rarely ever clear.
-
Ode to Connie Converse
A singer-songwriter out of New York in the 1950s, Connie Converse is one of those musical singularities that are periodically unearthed to our great benefit. An ode to her melancholy, intelligently trapped songs sums up the beauty of her music: Converse’s…
-
You Have to Get Up
Corporate escapee-turned-author Xu Xi shared a few choice fiction writing tips with the Jakarta Post. She suggests utilizing the formulas in spreadsheets to calculate timelines and characters’ ages, and recharging your writing energy by getting up from your desk and “being…
-
Raw Material
Our VW van had a Porsche engine, other modifications that made it good for tough Mexican roads. Gorgeous photographs accompany Lucia Berlin’s own account, with an introduction by Cressida Leyshon, of her travels in Mexico, drugs, and family life. Memories…
-
Vigilantism and Orange is the New Black: The Anxiety of Injustice
When those in power stifle the voices of survivors, they find other ways of expressing their truths.
-
Song of the Day: “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”
Mournful is the best way to describe Leadbelly’s voice in the song popularized by Nirvana on their live album, MTV Unplugged in New York. While Nirvana’s version captured the attention of audiences, the original lament was recorded by a canonized blues…
-
Notable Portland: 8/4–8/10
Thursday 8/4: Slamlandia! Poetry Open Mic and Slam welcomes the community to step forward and share their poetry. Hot Lips Hawthorne, 6 p.m., $1 suggested donation. Dave Madden, Amina Gautier, and Theodore Wheeler read from their latest books. Mother Foucault’s…
-
Puzzling over Plagiarism
With the recent presidential election utilizing such unapologetic plagiarism, one wonders just what goes on in the minds of anyone who so confidently uses others’ words as their own. Marina Budhos meditates on this issue as she details the shocking moment…
-
Cuba’s Unfinished Race Revolution
I want readers to understand how racism and antiracism can exist at the same time even in a revolutionary setting. Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution by author and professor Devyn Benson is the long-untold history of racism against Black…
-
History of Art by Margaret Luongo
Mary Vensel White reviews History of Art by Margaret Luongo today in Rumpus Books.
-
The Work Doesn’t Forget
Anthony Walton remembers poet, editor, and Brown University professor Michael Harper as a “secular priest”—of words and deeds and heart: For Michael, poetry was like psychoanalysis: a searching out and recovery of narratives, not just his own, but national and…