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The Absolute at Large

April 22, 2011

Tags: The Absolute at Large, religious fundamentalism

I have two confessions to make — long-hidden nerd secrets about which I simply have to come clean...

Click on the picture and listen to my whole essay on Karel Capek's hilarious lost classic The Absolute at Large

All Contradictions are Created Equal; an Interview with Will Oldham

April 21, 2011

Tags: Will Oldham, Bonnie Prince Billy, Palace, writing

One of my favorite writers is not a writer. It’s Will Oldham, the voice and force behind the band Palace, The Palace Brothers, Palace Music and Bonnie Prince Billy. I listened to very little else when I was (more…)

Cara Hoffman Hates Men

April 14, 2011

Tags: Cara Hoffman, gender, cara hoffman naked, cara hoffman hates men, CSI

Thanks to Google Analytics I can see the terms people are using to search online for me and my work.
The vast majority are, as you would expect, my name and the title So Much Pretty.

But there are other terms; “Cara Hoffman naked” and “Cara Hoffman nude” and also “Cara Hoffman hates men.” (more…)

Bringing it all Back Home; an Interview with Joe Schmidbauer

April 12, 2011

Tags: Joe Schmidbauer, reporting, women's rights

The author happily standing between editors Sarah Knight and Joe Schmidbauer
Last month my first editor Joe Schmidbauer came to visit for the launch of So Much Pretty. I began writing for Joe when I was 23, covering environmental issues for a community newspaper. I spent nearly every morning of my life for four years sitting in his kitchen engaged in the kind of critical analysis I’d missed by not going to college, and then (more…)

The Pastoral Life

April 11, 2011

Tags: the wind in the willows, So Much Pretty

There are a lot of books mentioned in So Much Pretty because the main characters, by and large, are big readers. Some of these books are favorites of mine, texts that really did change the way I saw the world, and some of them are books I’ve carried on private dialogues with for (more…)

Take the F Train

April 7, 2011

Tags: parenting, family, cursing

evidence of the positive impact of profanity on social growth and happiness
I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard my father curse, and I can attest to the chilling affects of using profanity in his presence; a feeling like you’ve disappointed someone entrusted with the divine task of protecting unseen cherubs from exposure to human depravity or stupidity.

It was a bit of a mixed message to get from a guy who had once been (more…)

Guest Blog: The Novelist Goes to War by David Abrams

April 6, 2011

Tags: David Abrams, Iraq, writing

David Abrams’ short stories have appeared in Esquire, Narrative, Connecticut Review, The Greensboro Review, The Missouri Review, and other literary quarterlies. He is currently at work on Fobbit, a novel loosely based on his experiences during the Iraq War. His blog, The
Quivering Pen
, can be found at:www.davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com


It’s February 2005 and I am in a C-130 flying over Iraq, scrotum shriveling at the thought of terrorist rocket launchers which, at that very moment, could be aimed directly at our fuselage. (more…)

The Slow News Day

April 5, 2011

Tags: stolen pig, reporting

I covered a wide variety of stories when I was a reporter, but one of my favorites was a story about a stolen pig.

I started my day as usual by going to the state police headquarters in a town with a population of six thousand, called Homer, where I would read the blotter and drink coffee. Stories generally involved (more…)

Guest Blog: Of Feral Children and Other Hybrid Spaces by Jacob A. Bennett

April 4, 2011

Tags: guest blog, Bhanu Kapil, Jacob A. Bennett, humanimal

Jacob A. Bennett currently lives in Philadelphia where he teaches composition and literature. A graduate of the Goddard College MFA in Creative Writing program, his poetry and criticism has appeared in The Fifth Estate, CONSEQUENCE Magazine, Pocket Smut, The Critical Flame, The Pitkin Review, and The Somerville News. He is currently at work on a play entitled "culture of comment." Here Bennett illuminates the work of poet Bhanu Kapil

Not unnaturally, and in keeping with what I perceive to be the author’s working/writing style, Humanimal: A Project for Future Children has been incubating within me for some time, a book I’ve been living with without ever having read it. I’d heard parts of it read prior to publication, and now it (more…)

In Memory of a Good Genius

April 1, 2011

Tags: Matthew Borrelli, genius, childhood, Alice Piper

Matthew at the shore
Many people have asked me where the inspiration for the character Alice Piper came from; the genius in all disciplines, the physical abilities, the sense of humor and the off-the-charts talent at anything she put her mind to. Did I make this up? Did I make up how polymaths think and behave?

I didn’t. (more…)

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