I tell myself that all I need is practice and maybe much better shorts. I wonder: when did I become such a beautiful liar? Walk, walk, walk, and fly....more
Shame is a treble hook that tells me that 1) I not only fail but am a failure, that 2) I not only damage people but I am damaged, and that 3) I not only lie but I am a lie....more
I’ve spent twenty years searching for the girl in the black shorts with a cold can of soda pop in her hand as though going through the steps of locating a lost wallet....more
“It” does not even “come” in the traditional sense. These primal, atavistic qualities are with us all the time, lying dormant until the right situation coaxes them forth....more
Samantha Irby discusses her new essay collection, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, all that comes along with writing about your life, and reading great horror books. ...more
Lisa Factora-Borchers talks about being a Catholic feminist, writing across genres, and pushing back against a singular narrative about New York. ...more
President Trump has suspended all H-1B visa processing, and He would like us to reevaluate several candidates who gained entry under the fashion-model exception....more
The pressure to prove ourselves can have a distorting effect, causing us to doubt our instincts in favor of following others we perceive to be experts or “genuine.”...more
Recent Whiting Award winner Tony Tulathimutte discusses his first novel, Private Citizens, the state of satire in 2017, “booby-trapping” identity politics, and productivity in the Internet age. ...more
Whether you are celebrating your father or cursing his name this Father's Day, here's a list of very good books about fathers from writers we love. ...more
I just remember when I first started playing that set how beautiful and perfect it was. Having a real instrument really made a difference. I started really playing!...more
I think we need to listen closer for the stories that shake us up the most ... and then share them and talk about them with the people we love. And the people we don’t....more
Nikki Wallschlaeger discusses her new collection Crawlspace, why she chose to work with the sonnet form, and how segregation in American never ended. ...more
At the end of the week, which was long with sleepless nights, Miri picked her heart out of the kitchen sink, put it in a paper lunch bag, and took it to the witch....more
Julie Buntin discusses her debut novel, Marlena, why writing about teenage girls is the most serious thing in the world, and finding truths in fiction. ...more
I was told that I was “a good digger” if I was behaving as a young child, working hard, and not talking back. Like nursery rhymes, the rhythm of racism cannot be forgotten....more
In honor of the World's Worst Boss, we've put together a list of books full of workplace drama for you to read while we wait to see if we can get that orange guy fired....more
Sabina Murray discusses the novel Valiant Gentleman, writing characters that are fundamentally different from herself, and confronting issues of colonization. ...more
Critics have noted how The Keepers is similar to other prestige documentaries but with a significant difference—its focus on the victims and their stories....more
I left the car by the roadside and ran up the slope, in tears now, reaching the picnic tables and swings and, as bright and vivid as in my dreams, my purple-shaped climbing frame, exactly as I remembered it....more
Born in Michigan but currently based in Berlin, Germany, Laurel Halo is one of the most compelling electronic producers around. Halo’s third album, Dust, is out now from Hyperdub, and is breaking all preconceptions about women in electronic music.
Mixing experimental beats, synth pop, and abstract sounds, with techno hints that peek out in her live sets, the classical and free-jazz trained musician creates a new, 3D sonic experience in her compositions. Dust finds Halo returning to vocals after her 2013 instrumental record, Chance of Rain. (more…)
People are more concerned with being fat than with eating disorders, if we go by the number of books in each respective section at one blogger’s local bookstore.
First-time novelist Lisa Ko impressively employs a fractured narrative to portray the plight of fractured people, but don’t expect conventional satisfactions.(more...)
Sunday 6/25: Join the fun: it’s the first day of the week-long International Fitzgerald Conference! It’ll include a host of papers and presentations, as well as a celebration of the Minnesota roots of Fitzgerald’s writing. 6/25-7/1, Hotel 340, 12 p.m., $205.
Tuesday 6/27: Celebrate Pride with the June installment of Intermedia Arts’ Queer Voices reading series! This edition of Queer Voices reading will also include a book fair beforehand, where audiences can talk to the authors and purchase their work. Minneapolis Central Library Pohlad Hall, 5:30 p.m., $5–$25 suggested donation.
Sunday 6/25: Rob Hill, Omotara James, Meghan E.B. Lin, and Phil Demise Smith celebrate the launch of the latest issue of Newtown Literary. Socrates Sculpture Park, 4 p.m., free.
Monday 6/26:Olivia Kate Cerrone, Charlotte Shane, Zeeva Bukai, and Chris Wolfe join the H.I.P. Lit Summer Series. Nowadays, 7 p.m., free.
Today I write on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. As someone who has been influenced by not a few pagan practitioners and Wiccan wonder workers, along with more conventional priests and monks of various religious varieties, I am attuned to the turning of our planet in the cosmos. Striving to be rational, I nevertheless carry a torch for the romance of astrology that informed my youth, and still celebrate the joys of shamanic practice, divination, chant, and just all around cosmic grooviness. No matter how much I am persuaded to be a child of the enlightenment, in my heart of hearts I remain a child of the occult revival of the 1960s, and secretly believe deep down that everybody must get stoned. Not literally, anymore, in my case. Recovery from alcoholism has necessarily shut that door of perception for the past twenty five years, but it can never be completely closed once opened, and there are other ways and means. (more…)
Sunday 6/25: Don’t miss the 46th Annual Chicago Pride Parade! The parade begins at noon at Montrose and Broadway and ends at Diversey and Sheridan. Free.