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Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

January 2018

January 10, 2018

Reynolds Price and Me: The Tale of Two Rhodes Scholars, Part 1

Reynolds Price slithered onto the American literary scene in 1962. “Just with his body and...

January 09, 2018

Invisible Man

What made me pick up Ralph Ellison’s classic 1952 novel, Invisible Man? Had I ever...

January 08, 2018

The Crown and Victoria: Tales of Two Queens

Over Christmas break, I was marshalled into watching two televisions series to which I wouldn’t...

January 03, 2018

Blind Epiphany

Over Thanksgiving, my sister and I spoke of transitions. We're both susceptible to periods of...

January 02, 2018

Mirrors, Monsters, and Art

Often when Aomame finishes showering and prepares to dress, she stands naked before a mirror...

December 2017

December 29, 2017

Listening to My Life: 17 Listens for 2017

First, a note: I think this might be the last time I do this. If...

December 28, 2017

The Jealous Prayer

In the first days of my MFA program, one of the mentors—a fiction writer I...

December 27, 2017

Martha Stewart: Entertaining for Millions

Quick: before 2017 ends, I want to mark an anniversary that has somehow been missed...

December 26, 2017

Jews Without Jerusalem

Unimaginable. That’s precisely why I will imagine it. Shake them, shake the books, shake the...

December 25, 2017

The Christmas I Sat Next to a Sex Offender

Last year my husband and I celebrated our first Christmas with our infant daughter. She...

December 21, 2017

My Last Resort

I’m at the beach with my husband, wining and dining on the company dime for...

December 19, 2017

A Theologian Reads Karl Ove Knausgaard

My reading habits, I confess, aren’t literary. I probably lack the training and the gifts...

December 18, 2017

Mystical Rose Among Thorns

Maria walks amid the thorn Kyrie eleison. Maria walks amid the thorn, Which seven years...

December 15, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Meditation on Soteriology”

Karen An-Hwei Lee lays out her poem “Meditation on Soteriology” so that it looks at...

December 14, 2017

The Sentences of William H. Gass

Last week, one of my favorite authors, William H. Gass, died at ninety-three. He was...

December 13, 2017

Lucia in the Dark

Every year after the clocks fall back, I read Lia Purpura's essay "Sugar Eggs: A...

December 06, 2017

Lady Bird Ascending: Part 2

Lady Bird finds its rhythm by the quick wit of its characters’ banter and succeeds...

December 05, 2017

Lady Bird Ascending: Part 1

I graduated from Bellefonte Area High School in 2004. During my senior year, I indulged...

December 01, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Scale”

As I read and re-read this poem, I enjoy noticing exactly when I’ve realize that...

November 2017

November 30, 2017

The Cost of Writing the Truth

I remember my mother used to go to bed for the day. The blackness of...

November 27, 2017

The Chopin Stitch

In a recent New York Times interview, pianist Steven Osborne discussed the strange experience of...

November 24, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Saint Francis Appears at the Scene of an Accident, Then Joins the Murmuration”

Reflecting on a strange or disturbing story as a distant narrator can often have a...

November 23, 2017

A Tradition Without Tryptophan

November is always an interesting time for a family of vegetarians. While my three children...

November 22, 2017

Fargo: The True Story

This is a true story. Those are the words that have begun every episode of...

November 21, 2017

The Night I Read Flannery O’Connor’s College Journal

I am. This is not pure conceit. My tea (Irish Breakfast, decaf, as it’s nearly...

November 20, 2017

St. Anna of the Walking Dead

Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis (We multiply whenever we are mown down by you)...

November 16, 2017

A Feminine Corollary To Machismo? Part 2

My companions and I had overstayed our moment in the bishop’s suite, which was by...

November 15, 2017

A Feminine Corollary to Machismo? Part 1

After the keynote speaker at the conference, everyone in my immediate vicinity wanted a drink,...

November 14, 2017

Remembering Father George

My priest has died. Or rather, in Eastern Orthodox terminology, he has reposed. He has...

November 10, 2017

Poetry Friday: “Camp Meeting”

We’re familiar with the genre called “historical fiction.” But in “Camp Meeting: Old Saybrook, Connecticut,...