The Imagination Is Free: And So Is this Lecture
Date: June 4, 2020
David Mason gives a hypothetical “last lecture”!
News & Reviews
News:
The Swamp
Date: June 4, 2020
It is Fourth of July weekend, and until a few days earlier, we had forgotten that for coastal towns this is prime time for tourism. Despite the busy sidewalks and […]
C-Ville: Taking covers: Your social distancing reading list
Date: June 4, 2020
With the cancellation of the Virginia Festival of the Book, and recommendations to practice social distancing, there’s never been a better time to pick up some extra reading material. While […]
The Oregonian: Poems for the Pandemic
Date: June 4, 2020
Kim Stafford’s days have a rhythm, a routine. Oregon’s poet laureate wakes before dawn. He takes a long walk around his neighborhood. When he returns to his home in Southwest Portland, […]
KUER 90.1: To Be Alive — Is Power: Poetry For The Pandemic
Date: June 4, 2020
With all that’s going on right now, it may be more important than ever to remember to take a beat and appreciate something beautiful — even if that’s just a […]
Ms. Magazine: A Word Person Thinks About Bodies
Date: June 4, 2020
It was recently brought to my attention that my characters are obsessed with bodies—their own and everyone else’s.
CBC: Milton’s Paradise Lost: a survival guide for a fractured world
Date: June 4, 2020
Vietnamese-American writer Andrew Lam considers Paradise Lost “the first refugee story.” “When I learned about it, as someone who had lost his homeland, it resonated, naturally, because Vietnam was everything to my […]
Black Earth Institue: Social Distancing
Date: June 4, 2020
In dreams I walk through crowds, brushing arms, knocking elbows. Skin to skin: hands are bare. Crocuses congregate in beds, along sidewalks. Unlatching city gates,
Poets.org: Aerial, Wild Pine
Date: June 4, 2020
A flare of russet,green fronds, surpriseof flush againstthe bare grey cypressin winter woods. Cardinal wild pine,quill-leaf airplantor dog-drink-water.Spikes of bright bloom–exotic plumage.
Arts At MIT: A Writer’s Voyage: Mia Heavener, MIT Course 1, 2000
Date: June 4, 2020
“Be stubborn and ultimately believe in your writing,” advises first-time novelist Mia Heavener ’00, “especially if you are having crappy writing days.” On April 13, Heavener visited Wyn Kelley’s literature […]
Reviews:
Jacobin Reviews Luke Goebel’s KILL DICK
Date: June 11, 2026
“Like a good actor, Kill Dick hits its marks, stays true to the script, controls its eyeline to avoid spiking the camera. Is it real? You look up from the page to […]
Institute of American Indian Arts praises William Archila’s CANÍCULA/DOG DAYS
Date: June 9, 2026
In this bilingual collection, much wisdom emerges from the struggle of living through a civil war and then migrating from El Salvador to Los Angeles. […]The history and knowledge that […]
Rebecca Chace’s TALKING TO THE WOLF reviewed by a few more words!
Date: June 2, 2026
In Rebecca Chace’s new novel, Talking to the Wolf (Red Hen Press; 208 pages), three friends in their mid-50s—Val, Sasha, and Lauren—prepare for their thirty-fifth high school reunion while mourning […]
Amy Pence’s YELLOW Lauded by Midwest Book Review
Date: June 2, 2026
“Amy Pence’s ability to weave poetic overtones of observation and dialogue into Z’s story permeates her life with a richness of language and realization uncommon in LGBTQ+ stories.”
Laura Kasischke’s THE LIFEGUARD is Heralded by Midwest Book Review
Date: June 2, 2026
“THE LIFEGUARD by Laura Kasischke is raised to an extraordinary level of literary excellence and is unreservedly recommended.”
Midwest Book Review Praises Luke Goebel’s KILL DICK
Date: June 2, 2026
“Original, deftly crafted, and a simply riveting read from start to finish, author Luke Goebel’s distinctive, character and narrative driven style brings his novel, “Kill Dick”, to an impressive level […]
Library Journal reviews Khanh Ha’s THE AFTERLIFE OF A THREADBARE JESTER!
Date: June 2, 2026
In his latest novel (following An Artist’s Legacy), Ha returns to a 20th-century postwar Vietnam setting, the same setting and time he deployed in earlier fictional works, notably The Demon […]
Susan Campbell’s THIS FAR NORTH receives advanced praise from Foreword Reviews!
Date: June 2, 2026
What wilderness does best, it does in Alaska. With her temporal gaze fixed on how immense cold and wind , water and time weather a virginal northern landscape, Susan Campbell’s […]
Matt Witt’s Memorial Day Radio Review of Helen Benedict’s THE SOLDIER’S HOUSE
Date: May 28, 2026
“War is never over, even when the fighting stops […] THE SOLDIER’S HOUSE brings that reality to life.”
Khanh Ha’s THE AFTERLIFE OF A THREADBARE JESTER reviewed by Christopher Connor!
Date: May 28, 2026
It’s important to understand what this novel is, and conversely, what it is not. It does not sanitize the treatment of prisoners with cheerful escape plots. While Khang forms genuine […]