childhood
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Artifacts
Question: How many years after realizing they weren’t in love did your parents stay together?
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Spotlight: Dickson Lam and Ted Closson
Writer Dickson Lam and illustrator Ted Closson team up on a graphic story about Lam’s life called “You Think This Is Your House?”
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The Unmade House
We never moved. We just faded out of the house. Let me clarify what I mean when I say “we”…
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The Empty-Nest Yard Sale
Talking to your kid can be as nerve-wracking as going in for a big job interview. And it’s also like interviewing a temperamental actor or rock star—you’re afraid if you ask the wrong thing, they’ll tear off their lapel mic…
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Brother, This is Your Memory Cloak
I was stronger. By far I was the stronger of us both. A ballerina’s punch could’ve broken your nose, but I held back. We danced around the room like two tiny sparrows pecking at a fresh worm.
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When Fiction Won’t Let You Lie to Yourself
Why do we incorporate our personal lives into works of fiction? And how do we know when to stop? In a post for the New York Times‘s “Draft” series, “about the art and craft of writing,” Rumpus columnist Peter Orner recalls…
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Eleven
We don’t know how to talk about children anymore. We get so wrapped up in these shallow narratives about children being preternaturally advanced, about little girls wearing make up and dressing provocatively and seducing the camera, about little girls maturing…
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My Little Brother Ruined My Life
“Are you a masochist?” It’s the first thing Bosco asks me. He’s fourteen years old now, almost my height, 5′ 8″, creamy white skin, and a small, German nose from my stepmother’s side of the family.
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Is Michael Chabon Giving Grownups Too Much Credit?
In a recent article in the New York Review of Books, Michael Chabon laments the loss of a sense of adventure in childhood. “If children are not permitted—not taught—to be adventurers and explorers as children,” he said, “What will become of…