Me and Sylvia Plath
Readers of a certain age will remember how, in the wake of President Kennedy’s assassination, a list of eerie parallels between his life and death and that of Abraham Lincoln began to circulate.
The Town Dumps of Massachusetts
Some say you can find the heart and soul of Massachusetts on the town greens of its many picturesque villages.
Ozick vs. Heller: The Sweet Science of Literary Catfights
Our pulses are quickened by the prospect of a literary catfight, just as the hearts of men beat faster when they approach the scene of a high-stakes sporting event.
Literal-Minded Women, and the Men Who Love Them
There was, above all the others, Nora. Because of our shared history of kidding around, we could make each other crack up across a conference room just by lifting eyebrows at the right moment in a boring business meeting.
The Case for George V. Higgins
Crime fiction suffers from guilt by association with its subject matter; why should you be concerned with murder and mayhem perpetrated by and among a bunch of low-lifes when you could be consuming the passion of Madam Bovary, the lost weekend of preppie Holden Caulfield, or War and Peace?
Stories that Enlighten: Illusions by Richard Bach
by Stephen Parrish
Illusions was Richard Bach’s encore to Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and in my opinion, his magnum opus as well.
John Updike, Accidental Conservative
In August of 1966 a vacationing John Updike responded to a questionnaire he received that posed the question “Are you for, or against, the intervention of the United States in Vietnam?”
Understanding Poetry, the Hard Way
by Con Chapman
There are two types of people—those who “get” poetry, and those who don’t.
Polar Bears, Cannibals, and Facebook: The Meandering Ponderings of Mister Essay Writer Guy
Moore’s a master of the short, witty essay, and this book is a collection of some of his best.
Stevie Smith: Not Waving But Drowning
She seemed an unlikely candidate to be a writer, and few people in the London suburb where she lived—and which she satirized in her writing—knew her as one.
The Poetry Fixer
I dropped in on my state rep and asked him if he could get me on as Massachusetts poet laureate.
In Praise of Randomness
by Vivian Wagner
My love of randomness started when I went to a weekend writers’ retreat and heard a presentation by the mystery novelist Kylie Logan about using tarot cards to inspire our writing.
With Robert Frost at Wal-Mart
It’s Saturday, the day I check in on my fellow rustic poet, old man Frost, who lives down the road less travelled. He’s a cranky old cuss, but you would be too if you’d fallen as far as he has.
Story Slices: Experimental Writing with Laurie Wagner
by Vivian Wagner
We weren’t supposed to worry about whether we were writers or photographers. We were just snapping photos and writing things to go along with them.
Homage to Delmore Schwartz
by Con Chapman
In the summer of 2013 I began to make the rounds of literary magazines to remind them of the upcoming centenary of the birth of Delmore Schwartz. Surely the anniversary merited recognition.
