A Writer’s Residency: What is the Why?
Sean MurphyI was happy to come across this excellent essay, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love my Writing Group” by Kaethe Schwehn (courtesy of the indispensable Lit Hub, a…
Poem: Where the Hell is Shafi Hadi? (Revisited)
(*Saxophone player Shafi Hadi, born Curtis Porter, is best-known for his association with jazz legend Charles Mingus, and played on the seminal recording Mingus Ah Um, from 1959. He dropped…
The Problem with the Homeless Problem
There is a man who sits near the pumps at the gas station I drive by each day. The man is very obviously from somewhere else and has about him…
He’s Martin Amis…and We’re Not
Reading Martin Amis's non-fiction is like riding in a plane. As you cruise over miniaturized skyscrapers, crop circles, mountains, even oceans, you recognize—and remember—how tiny and insignificant your own piece…
Poem: Kurt Vonnegut’s Cigarettes (from Blotterature)
I'm honored to have this poem (written in solidarity to one of my literary heroes), "Kurt Vonnegut's Cigarettes," appear in the excellent literary magazine Blotterature. Check it out, below, or…
50 BULLET POINTS CONCERNING AMERICA’S GUN PSYCHOSIS
Note: It makes me physically ill that this piece, written in 2016, is still not only relevant, but --inconceivably-- a bit outdated. Don't overlook the pathetic fact that the (very)…
Appreciating Ursula K. Le Guin and Cultivating the Right Kind of Rebellion
Sometimes, if you're lucky, you find the right books at the right time; more rarely and therefore more miraculous, the right books find you. After first experiencing (not reading, experiencing)…
Sorry, Charlie (on the Charlie Hebdo Attacks, Three Years Later)
i. OF COURSE RELIGION IS the problem. For anyone who, understandably, would say it’s a political issue and not a religious issue, I aver that so many of our political…
Just Say (N)Oprah or, Make Great American Again
All this breathless, borderline hysterical enthusiasm about Oprah running for president is, sadly, doing a great deal to help me understand how Trump became president. It's different demographics to be…
David Bowie: The Man Who Owned the World (Two Years Later)
ONLY THE BEATLES. That’s the sole comparison that comes to mind when compelled to name a musical act with similar impact and importance. The Beatles, as we all know, changed…