‘Coal’ is a 1968 poem by the African-American poet Audre Lorde (1934-92). Lorde was a self-described ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.’ The ‘warrior’ is as important as the other words. Her poem ‘Coal’ is one of her most frequently anthologised, and sees Lorde harnessing the rage she feels when, for instance, she sees white people’s
Literature
April 29, 2022, 1:15pm A couple of years ago, I was back home in Brooklyn between college semesters and reading Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy for my experimental fiction class (yes, yes, eye roll away). I had just been lamenting to a friend that, while an egregious amount of books take place in Brooklyn, no
The following is an edited excerpt from a conversation with Courtney Balestier on WMFA, a show about creativity and craft, and first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. * I was having difficulty managing all of my research, and I was having difficulty with keeping track of my thinking. There was a
Ernest Hemingway’s 1925 short story ‘Cat in the Rain’ touches upon a number of themes, but it touches upon them lightly, for the most part. As is often the case in his fiction, Hemingway lets a few spare details suggest the inner lives of his characters, with these mostly external details hinting at much larger
April 28, 2022, 12:39pm The maestro of the motion capture suit Andy Serkis (aka Gollum aka King Kong aka Caesar the aggrieved chimp aka Supreme Leader Snoke aka Baloo the singing bear) is having quite the year. After directing the superhero flick Venom: Let There Be Carnage (which grossed a cool $500 million) and playing a
Some people chant, others focus on breathing, and a select few choose to listen to thrash metal in a pitch-black room, but when it comes to contemplating the career of Patrick Swayze, there’s no better place to start than by watching his filmography from start to finish. From his subdued and tender performances to the
Poetry can be used to say all sorts of things which affect us deeply: the love we feel for that special someone, or the gratitude we hold for someone who has been there and supported us. And so poems for best friends – best friends forever or ‘BFF’ in particular – are especially useful when
April 27, 2022, 2:46pm April 27, 1988 is a very important date. It marks the day we went from a world without Lizzo to a world with Lizzo. (Honestly, it should be a national holiday.) In honor of the iconic singer/songwriter/flutist/shapewear designer, I give you: book recommendations based on your favorite feel-good song. Happy birthday,
The texts and emails started right away. Earlier this spring, when Julia, an HBO Max original series “inspired by Julia Child’s extraordinary life and her long-running television series, The French Chef,” premiered, I began getting questions from writers, editors, colleagues and friends. Did that actually happen? No one was writing to ask me about Julia
‘The Mocking-Bird’ is an 1891 short story by the American author Ambrose Bierce, who is also remembered for his witty The Devil’s Dictionary and for his mysterious disappearance in around 1914. ‘The Mocking-Bird’ is a Civil War tale about a soldier who shoots a man while on sentry duty at night, and struggles to find
April 26, 2022, 10:08am Many in Oregon’s literary community are dismayed that poet Carl Adamshick has just been awarded a $10,000 fellowship from Literary Arts. According to this thoroughly reported article at The Oregonian, Adamshick left his position as director of Tavern Books—which he co-founded—after multiple financial improprieties were discovered: Tavern Books’ former managing editor,
When it comes to fiction, I can’t write about a place until I’ve left it. Over the years, I’ve found that I require some distance—sometimes psychic, sometimes literal—from my subject and the setting in which the story occurs. I’m a huge fan of what some writers like to call composting, wherein an author will allow
What does the word tantalise have to do with the chemical element tantalum? And what is the connection of both of these to the figure of Tantalus from Greek mythology? To answer these questions, we first need to know who Tantalus was, and what the precise details of the myth surrounding Tantalus was. So, let’s
April 25, 2022, 4:05pm The American Academy in Rome, America’s oldest overseas center for independent studies in advanced research in the arts and humanities, has announced the winners of the Rome Prize. Winners receive a stipend, workspace, and room and board at the Academy’s campus in Rome. Rome Prize winners in eleven disciplines—ancient studies, architecture,
The English writer Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), who is better known under his pen name Saki, was a master of the short comic story and, in some ways, a missing link between Oscar Wilde and P. G. Wodehouse. What’s more, Saki was that rare writer who could write humorously, for an adult audience, about both
‘The Fog Horn’ is a 1951 short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), republished in 1953 as the opening story in his collection The Golden Apples of the Sun. The story, which is about a lighthouse whose foghorn emits a noise which attracts the attention of a primeval dinosaur living miles below the ocean, contains a
‘His Excellency General Washington’ is a poem written by Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84) about General George Washington, who would later serve as the first President of the United States. Wheatley was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared in 1773 when she was probably
April 21, 2022, 10:21am I can’t watch a feel-good rom-com or cute TV show without someone working in our industry. If they’re not writers, they vaguely work in book publishing. Or there’s a meet-cute at a bookstore. Or they work at a magazine/website. And as we all know, behind every magazine/website, there is a real character