Blog

Two books, "Mrs. Bridge" and "Mr. Bridge" are propped up side by side

Literary Boroughs #19: Kansas City, Missouri

The Literary Boroughs series will explore little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. Posts are by no means exhaustive and we encourage our readers to contribute in the comment section. The series will run on…

poorly lit hospital room without any people - just cots with dividers and some machines

#GurneyEssay – The Trending Topic that will Topple Kitten Videos

I want to claim that I have invented a new form of essay. It’s easy and fun and with the uptrending in retirement age demographicals in the USA regionality, it might just become the dominant form of essay writing in the next decade. It’s possibilities for depressing content are unlimited! Take that kittens. It’s called…

cover of Chinese Walls by Xu Xi

THAT LIT, LIT LIFE (with global characteristics) 5 (of 14)

I used to live in Singapore. In ’94, just before my first book was released, a corporation moved me to this tropical, island city-state. It still feels like home whenever I fly into Changi at the eastern end of the island. Prison neighborhood. The street where I lived. My house was quite unbelievably beautiful, according…

photo of a busy tourist site in Nottingham

Literary Boroughs #18: Nottingham, UK

The Literary Boroughs series will explore little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. Posts are by no means exhaustive and we encourage our readers to contribute in the comment section. The series will run on…

photo of two girls with their backs to the camera looking at a full bookshelf

Bridging the Generation Gap: Grub Street Teens Visit Ploughshares

This past summer, during Grub Street’s Young Adult Writers Teen Fellowship (http://www.grubstreet.org/index.php?id=22), one of my students wrote a ghazal that left me speechless with awe and envy. She is fifteen. Most days during the three-week program, she wore flannel shirts, jean shorts, and black Gladiator sandals. Her shoulder-length brown hair had a streak of pink…

Cover of The Listeners by Leni Zumas

The Listeners

The Listeners Leni Zumas Tin House Books, May 2012 $15.95 352 pages Perhaps a lesser-known corollary to the Chekhov’s gun principle is this:  if there is an octopus on the cover of the book, it had better shoot ink by novel’s end.  In Leni Zumas’ The Listeners, however, it’s not ink that’s spilled, but blood,…