“The School” Imitation
A couple of days ago I talked about Donald Barthelme, “The School,” which is a story that I think everyone should check out. So after letting the story to stew in my mind I wanted to do an imitation of...
View ArticleWalt Whitman: an American voice that never dies
The right words to say the big things has been on my mind. I can yell at the top of my lungs why it’s wrong for you to believe ______. What’s harder is finding the right place in your mind for truly...
View ArticleThe other side of Walt Whitman’s Empathy: Thoughts from D.H. Lawrence
Yesterday I was talking about the empathy of Walt Whitman, a fraternal spirit of equality that if we kept in mind would allow us to listen to each other and have discussions about big issues rather...
View ArticleHere’s Why You Need To Read Stefanie Freele Today
I couldn’t believe it. When I finished “Scantily Clad Submissive Women,” I felt both satisfied and wanting more. It worked, yet felt like it could keep going. Days later, while chucking away at my own...
View ArticleJohn Keats: The Overwhelming Artistry
Just the other day I was on TBS eFM’s The Bookend, talking about John Keats. But well after the recording, the man just keeps lingering in my mind. Below is my attempt to explain why I think Keats has...
View ArticleThe Dangers of Taking it Slow
Monday was Chusok: the harvest festival when families get together and cook too much, eat too much, and remember too much. It’s good to be with family, and have a few slow days and decompress from the...
View ArticleNo respect: a lesson in entitlement
Steve Almond was pissed. It all started with a discussion about The Best American Short Stories with his MFA writing students. To my astonishment, a number of students made comments indicating their...
View ArticleGoing to school with “The School” by Donald Barthelme
Korea is a culture that pours more effort, money, and reverence into education than is healthy. So when I heard Donald’s Barthelme’s “The School,” with all of its absurdity and heart my heart leapt....
View ArticleThinking about teachers
To start her essay “The White Album,” Joan Didion starts with, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” That sentence, that declaration of what is this thing stories do in our heads has stuck with...
View ArticleThe Craft of Writing Effectively: takeaways from Prof. Larry McEnerney’s lecture
“Why should I think that?” Professor Larry McEnerney (University of Chicago) presses his students. They want to write better within academia and beyond. He pushes us to articulate what we’re doing...
View Article
