January 21st, 2012. I remember the date because Hollie said it was her six-month birthday. Neither of us thought we would end it on snow-covered mountain passes that seemed to slope up at damn-near-90-degree angles in whiteout conditions with a severely depleted gas supply and the cold truth of the matter, that we weren’t exactly […]
Merrily The Mount Snow Flies Read More »
Sharon Carvell’s quest for connection through art has been a lifelong endeavor. As her experiences have multiplied, so has her knowledge, her artistic expertise, and her love for trees. She calls trees “an expression of love.” They are, indeed, ancient almost beyond belief—on this planet for 370 million years while modern humans have existed for only
Sharon Carvell Art Read More »
In the early 1970s, my friend Carlos and I taught at a new community college, condescendingly known as “Safeway Tech” because its library occupied a decommissioned grocery store. Carlos and I had hit it off immediately. We both loved music – his father was a prominent symphony conductor – and wrote poetry. We translated each
More Than Enough of More Than Enough Read More »
I’ve never written a rhetorical analysis. Over the last decade of teaching composition at the community college level, a semester hasn’t passed without me assigning it to some poor group of souls, telling them, like they’re taking medicine, “You won’t like it, but it’s for your own good.” I lie. I’ll admit there is value
Orson Scott Card, known for his award-winning novel Ender’s Game, has achieved unusual notoriety for a bestselling author. While many readers praise Card’s writing ability, they sometimes struggle promoting his work since they disagree with his views on gay marriage. Gay rights activists have boycotted Card’s work on multiple occasions, successfully keeping a Superman story
Story First, Author Second: Drawbacks of Judging Literature By An Author’s Character Read More »
While crime fiction has gained some respect over the past twenty years, it’s still usually pigeon-holed as “genre fiction,” or some other label that signifies “not literature.” If “literature” is whatever certified English Professors think it is, then I’m qualified to disagree with the pigeon-holers. I don’t often use the term “literature,” but if I