election 2016
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Touring Trump’s America on Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad won the National Book Award on Wednesday night. In his acceptance speech he told us, “We’re happy in here; outside is the blasted hellhole wasteland of Trumpland. Be kind to everybody. Make art and fight…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
Bookstore sales continue to grow. In the wake of the presidential election, bookstores are becoming more than just shops and are serving their communities as impromptu community centers. More independent bookstores are becoming publishers. Bushwick Brooklyn’s Molasses Books has started…
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The Old Fetal Narrative
Maybe it has something to do with the watery world that a fetus inhabits—our words taking on the summersaulting quality of an internal water ballet.
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A Letter to My Male Friends Who May Not Know That They Are Women
Dearest loves, As you are, I am stricken. I am devastated. I am unmade. We have all felt a terrible blow. And yet, of course, we all feel it differently, and have different understandings of what has befallen us, and…
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #10: Art Lives!
Sunday: I work through the voting guide, propositions, and candidates, making my decisions. My partner, Argyle C, Klopnick (ACK!), is sure, now, that Hillary’s victory is certain. I ‘m not yet a believer. I think Trump is electable. Monday: I’m…
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This Week in Short Fiction
Following last week’s election results, the writing world has been full of voices reminding us of the power of words to protest, to heighten awareness, and to effect change. Whether through poetry, essay, memoir, fiction, or otherwise, words are an important…
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Where We Go from Here
Warrior up! Begin with small actions, like donating or volunteering, if you’re able.
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The Night Wash Jones Won
Eighty years ago, Wash Jones appeared as a minor character in William Faulkner’s masterpiece on American identity and self-invention, Absalom, Absalom! From a craft perspective Jones was put in for a purpose: to demonstrate the role that white working-class men…
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Reimagining America
I’m a performer, and in hard times, this job gets harder. I make music when the nation mourns, and my music can sound like hope.
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Where were you when the world broke?
Not in your echoing womb, to scream at you across your fields to wake up, not part of your denial that Earth is burning, dehydrated, suffocating on itself— I stood in a blue state while you bled the red of…
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Dear President-elect Trump
This evening, after returning home from my job as an English instructor in St. Paul, Minnesota, I locked my keys in my car. I believe the reason for this mistake pertained to my haggard and undone emotions. From my vantage…
