Features & Reviews
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John Updike
In literature there are many figures but few icons. John Updike published over 50 books which dug through the depths of suburban American lives, particularly our sex lives, once comparing a vagina to a ballet slipper. He contributed both fiction…
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Lost and Found
I first heard about Stoner back in grad school. I’d been on a Denis Johnson jag (weren’t we all?) and so naturally assumed the novel was a florid account of reefer madness. This is how Stoner begins: William Stoner entered…
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Poetic Lives Online: Random Poetry Links by Brian Spears
Oh, the things I’ve learned since I started doing this little column, the arguments I’ve lurked through, the long-winded defenses of one’s aesthetic choices, et cetera, et cetera. And I’m pulling out the fab stuff just for you. Martin Earl’s…
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The Shorty Q&A With Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Matthew Bernstein Sycamore was one of the early organizers of Gay Shame which, among other things, takes a stance against marriage in all forms.
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How My First Book Got Published
How many times do you really face a choice in life? How many times will you get the benefit of arriving at a crossroads, where you don’t have to fight the tug of rolling inertia, and your choice isn’t going…
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WHY I MUST GIVE UP WRITING
First let me say I’ve been a dedicated writer for half a century. I’ve published twenty-five books, and I’ve even won some prizes. I know a real writer is supposed to write for the art itself, yearning only toward self-expression
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Anti-war Poetry and the Oxymoron of Liberal Fathers
Robert Hass, Bush’s War, and the death of a father
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Chuck and Charles’ Beautiful Children
Charles Bock’s “Beautiful Children” comes out in paperback today with a new cover by rock and roll poster legend Chuck Sperry. Bock and Sperry have also created their own adult comic book that they will be giving out at Bock’s…