David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Pale of Vermont
But to become a writer I needed at least to learn about my own superstitions. I needed space in the house to sketch with words. I needed to commit heresies. And those acts had to feel pleasurable.
Posts by tag
Thoreau
22 posts
The Last Poems I Loved: John Berryman’s Dream Songs #265 and #279
I have a tendency to read difficult books when my life is difficult.
Word of the Day: Adoxography
(n.) skilled writing in praise of trivial or unpleasant subjects When people in a privileged society look deep within themselves to find what is missing, a streamlined clothes-cleaning experience comes…
Cabin in the Woods
It may not be 1869 anymore, but fear not: the golden age of conservation literature is far from over. As part of the Pacific Standard‘s week-long series on “opting-out,” Eva Holland writes…
The Walden game
Ready to achieve virtual self-reliance? The National Endowment for the Arts grant has recently awarded the University of Southern California a $40,000 grant to produce a video game based on…
The Diviner’s Tale
Morrow’s supple prose is grounded in lyricism, prose unafraid to give the reader both the forest and the trees. Bradford Morrow’s new novel, a feminist interpretation of fairy-tale tropes, explores…
Keep the Kevlar Handy: The Rumpus Interview with Mark Slouka
“In America, we tend to think belief trumps knowledge. To tease out the truth from the fabric of lies that surrounds us requires a certain degree of intelligence. Which is bad news for us, alas.
Take a Hike, or “Thoreau Was a Neuroscientist”
Stop reading this and go outside and take a walk somewhere nature-like. Right now. Okay, did you go? Good. Now you might actually pay attention to me.
The Rumpus Interview with Robert Sullivan
Journalist Robert Sullivan often documents unlovely corners of the natural world: The Meadowlands (1998) turned a naturalist’s eye on a dispiriting region of northern New Jersey notable for its Mafia…
Life in the Woods
Peter Rock’s darkly evocative fifth novel follows a father and daughter’s underground existence in a city park.