My Favorite Writing Movies
Updated June 23, 2019 Since writing mostly consists of sitting in front of a keyboard (with long moments of staring out the window thinking, “Why didn’t I listen to my […]
The Simplicity of “Complicated” Words
Walking my dog a few years ago, the word “fecundity” came to mind. This wet, ripe earth and rot smell sometimes turns the morning walk into the morning tug-of-war: she […]
Short Story: The Plague Ship 2.0
We’ve been on this airplane for two and a half years. Fourteen months quarantined on a military base. Sixteen months jetting around the continent as disaster tourists. It adds up. “Talk about a flight delay,” we say and crack thin smiles.
Short Story: Decisions Decisions
Nick is catatonic. He rocks on his feet like an inflatable clown, hands twisting against his skull as if trying to squeeze the images out of his head. He does […]
Unexpected Delight and Unceasing Pain: Reading the Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century
I’m done! Woo-hoo and thank God. With the last page of Finnegan’s Wake, I have now read every book on the Random House Modern Library list of the Best Novels […]
My Interesting (and Occasionally Painful) Journey Through the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century
Probably 15 or so years ago, when I was first struggling with writing and realizing I needed to read a lot more fiction, an author I knew suggested looking at […]
Short Fiction: Sovereign Citizens in Love (First Draft)
They ask me about Hollis all the time: “What was he like before the siege?” “Why does he hate the government so much?” “Did you ever think he’d do something like this?”
My Favorite Short Stories of 2011
I’ve only read a tiny fraction of the hundreds of literary journals and e-zines out there, so this list is limited to The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly (two of […]
My Favorite Books of 2011
I read a lot of books this year but, as is typically the case, most of them were older than 2011. Here are the books published this year (or close […]
Short Story: Raise High the Barriers
Turning toward Kennedy Plaza, the bus driver chooses the exact wrong moment to take out his frustrations, tromping on the gas pedal just as the front wheels are on a […]