Nick Ripatrazone
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A Transcendent Wilderness: Andrew J. Graff’s Raft of Stars
In particular, Graff’s river is numinous. It’s the center of everything.
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Private Belief vs. Public Art
For The Millions, Nick Ripatrazone explores Eyewear Publishing’s new anthology, The Poet’s Quest for God, and explains why poets “need God”: How do we discern a writer’s religious beliefs? When does the private belief inform the public art? When it comes to…
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A Eulogy for the Eulogy
Twentieth century philosopher J.L. Austin asked in his writing what words and phrases could do in their utterance. In this tradition, Nick Ripatrazone examines Morgan Meis and Stefanie Anne Goldberg’s fictionalized eulogy collection, Dead People, to find out what the…
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Writers Who Burn Their Own Work
We burn old love letters and photographs to be reborn. The action of burning is often a process. Find a match or a lighter. Put the papers in a container or can or shove them in a fireplace. There are…
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Learning by Listening
The Millions staff writer Nick Ripatrazone examines literature that “embraces the power of radio” and highlights the sounds of language: Radio is elegiac. Radio is the theater of the mind: our eyes are free to look elsewhere, but the sound bounces in…
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Growing Up with Books
Over at The Millions, Nick Ripatrazone asked some authors, including William Giraldi and Christa Parravani, which were the books that defined their childhoods and, subsequently, their writing imaginations.
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Writers and Running
Nick Ripatrazone on why writers need to run: While on sabbatical in London in 1972, a homesick Oates began running “compulsively; not as a respite for the intensity of writing but as a function of writing.” At the same time,…
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Summer Swimmer’s Lament
Over at The Millions, Nick Ripatrazone dives into John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” a story with well-deserved fame in the literary community, exemplary of Cheever’s style and a perfect read with which to mourn summer’s end.
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Word of the Day: Vergence
(n.); simultaneous movement of eyes toward or away from one another; c. 1902 in ophthalmology “Some days I can move the mower slowly, along lazy paths. … On other days, when rain beckons and the grass looks nearly knee-high, I…
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Introducing Introductions
“No matter whether it is called an introduction, foreword, or preface, the best front piece written by the book’s own author encourages a reader to turn the page and start, but respects her need to experience the work on her…
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Do We Need a Poet Laureate?
For Literary Hub, Nick Ripatrazone breaks down—and defends—the poet laureate.