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Harmony of the World cover in a repeated pattern

Your Misery, Your Morphia: Thoughts on Charles Baxter and “Spiritual” Fiction

Guest post by Greg Schutz In “Gershwin’s Second Prelude,” the first story in Charles Baxter‘s first book, the 1984 collection Harmony of the World, the elderly piano instructor Madame Gutowski leans back to admonish Kate, her pupil. “Now listen,” she says. “You children think you are so new with your misery, with your morphia. Pain…

person reading a kindle ebook reader on a white background

E-books? E-books!

Guest post by Fan Wu Larry, a retired history professor and a friend, emailed me recently to recommend a book he was reading. “It’s a must-read. I’ll lend it to you after I finish it,” he wrote. Fifteen minutes later, he emailed again. “Sorry, cannot lend it. I forgot that I got the book from…

drawings of school supplies and other school-related items

Back to School

Guest post by Aimee Nezhukumatathil Dear Reader,   As I type this, I can see that the usually quiet streets of my small town are now full and crowded by trucks with mattresses tied to the roofs, the various construction vehicles that peppered campus are slowly disappearing, and our big-box store is filled with harried…

strawberry pie with two halves of a fresh strawberry next to it

The Pie Plate: Serving up a Slice of Travel through the Haibun Poetic Form

Guest post by Aimee Nezhukumatathil   Dear Reader, I am covered in ice and snow for most of the year. But summers here in Western New York mean a bevy of fresh fruit from any of the local cherry orchards, blueberry fields, or strawberry patches. I live within five miles from several farms that allow…