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Literary Boroughs #1: Asilah, Morocco

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. The series will run on our blog from May 2012 until AWP13 in Boston. Please enjoy the first post on Asilah, Morocco…

A young Phillis Wheatly sits poised ready to write with one hand holding a pen and paper, the other propped under her chin.

Hearing Voices: Women Versing Life presents Phillis Wheatley

Now you’re on an auction block, struggling to stand, naked except for a scrap of blanket wrapped around your shoulders. You watch as money exchanges hands and realize that you are owned now, someone’s belonging. These new people call you Phillis, again and again, as if the name your parents gave you is easily discarded,…

cartoon illustration of a bunny, the word "or," and a pineapple with a question mark, posing a question to the viewer

“Pineapples Don’t Have Sleeves”: On Assessing Absurdity

In the days immediately following my last post, in which I stumbled semi-sensically through the difficulties of assessing images that are designed (at least in part) to resist explanation, Facebook lit up with a series of articles about a talking pineapple that recently appeared on a New York Public Schools System standardized test, much to…

The Variations

The Variations John Donatich Henry Holt & Co., February 2012 288 Pages $25.00 One notable fact about John Donatich’s protagonist in The Variations, a priest named Dominic, is that the narration never refers to him as “Father.” His elderly mentor, Father Carl, is always given proper accreditation, but Dominic himself is always just plain old…

A red pen rests on top of a manuscript.

First Drafts: Fiction

A Conversation with Lauren Groff, Kevin Moffett, and Christine Schutt This week, I’m excited to introduce a series of conversations I’ll be posting in the coming months: First Drafts. I’m talking to writers across genres about that tenuous and thrilling moment when something new arrives and, in one way or another, begins to demand a…