I have never had any faith in ideas of originality or concrete human identity. Things flow through us. Our work isn’t ours and can’t be.
Hypermobilities – Ellen Samuels
The symptoms could be hers; they could also be ours.
The Secret Adventures of Order – Vincent Czyz
Czyz remains on guard against prose writers whose search for the poetic slides into squashy self-indulgence, like someone picking up a karaoke microphone with a mistaken confidence that they really can sing.
Beyond Protagonist-Centered Fiction
The conflict between realism and its alternatives may still be going strong, but when it comes to the centrality of the protagonist, there’s no conflict, only agreement.
A Dream of a Woman – Casey Plett
The stories in A Dream of a Woman, much like the characters, hold each other up.
I think part of giving female characters their full humanity on the page includes letting them be ugly and dangerous and selfish in their behavior, wherever it might stem from.
Kids in America: A Gen X Reckoning – Liz Prato
Truth and reconciliation: it’s not something we do well here in the United States.
For many, regimes of misremembrance can feel like opening a closet full of skeletons, only to find beautiful shoes.
All of the lives described in Far West are in some way beholden to the mercy of their surroundings, its influence inescapable.
I think people are realizing that no state is ever going to love you. No law enforcement agency is going to put food in your mouth or tuck you in at night.