So Wild
Pearl was limp with boredom and Taiwan’s humidity. That morning Pearl’s mother, Wen Hua, told her that visitors were coming to the house and ordered her to wear one of the playsuits she’d bought … Continued
Search Results for Is literature makes man more moral
An Interview with S.D. Chrostowska, Author of Matches
In 2013 an editor of a Canadian journal asked me to review a new Dalkey title written by S.D. Chrostowska. Perhaps he figured that I might appreciate the experimentalism behind Permission: A Novel (2013). “We run once again down that … Continued
Exactly As We Wish: Exploring American Sexuality with Emily Witt and Gay Talese
Books Discussed: Future Sex by Emily Witt (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016) Thy Neighbor’s Wife by Gay Talese (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1980). My bus broke down on the way home from work one … Continued
Interview with Adam Haslett
I have known Adam Haslett for over half of my life. He’s not the first person I thought of for Machismo. But as Norman Mailer is no longer with us . . . Adam was the second person. He’s been … Continued
The Night Side ||| Ecotone
My real life—or what I think of as my real life—began in fiction. It was late March 1959. Earlier that month, I had turned fifteen, an occasion I had celebrated by nearly killing myself with a bottle of whiskey. In … Continued
Rick Moody by Darcey Steinke ||| an Interview from Bomb Magazine
Darcey Steinke We’re going to try to be informal tonight. I have lots of questions. They’re grouped into three topics. Some questions about the new book, some questions about postmodernism, and then some questions about God. So, I’m going to … Continued
A Review of Friendswood by René Steinke
(New York, NY: Riverhead, 2014) Friendswood, the lyrical new novel by National Book Award Finalist René Steinke, is the kind of 300-plus-page book that devours you in a couple of afternoons. The prose is nimble but sure-footed, the narrative suspenseful, … Continued
Relation to the Absolute: A Conversation with H.L. Hix
One road leads to another. (A few, it is true, lead only to the sea, but mostly one road leads to another.) I met the poet H.L. Hix through the poet David Mason. Or, rather, I have never actually met … Continued
Game Theory
GAME THEORY: We subject literary values to the rigorous speculation of the science of game theory and discover that literature and game theory are both strategic and wonderfully random. New work by Bin Ramke, Lynn Potts, Jay Hopler, John Gallaher, and many more.
Driftless Elegy
The bridge over the Mississippi is shut, the traffic diverted to Wabasha while authorities investigate the undergirding which is corroded and in danger of collapse. Work has slowed on both sides of the river while an enterprising man with a … Continued
Literary Mothers: A Conversation & Book List
JENNY OFFILL & CERIDWEN MORRIS Discussions about motherhood are cluttered with logistics, dark nuances, and commiseration. They are frequently conducted under the punch-drunk fog of sleeplessness, grammar-addling distraction, and amazement. Discussions about creativity and motherhood are even more fraught—almost … Continued
On The Publication of My First Book
Translated from Italian by Elizabeth Harris Ladies and Gentlemen, I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be here. Hello, everyone. I wanted to greet a number of you in person, but I see now that some of … Continued