Salman Rushdie

What women really want when women want imperialism: Kushner and Rushdie on Queen Isabella

What women really want when women want imperialism: Kushner and Rushdie on Queen Isabella

In November, after failing to allow a woman to steer our ship of state, watching Netflix’s The Crown seemed punishing. After Hillary Clinton’s close loss, I didn’t know if I could handle watching a woman preside over the United Kingdom. But I capitulated and found myself watching a young Elizabeth II struggle to stand up to…

Round-Down: Freedom of Expression Is Under Attack, Ever Important

Round-Down: Freedom of Expression Is Under Attack, Ever Important

At the tail end of Banned Books Week, when some in the States were questioning whether raising awareness of freedom of speech was necessary anymore, on the other side of the world, in India, many authors were banding together in protest of what they see as the nation’s rising intolerance towards free of speech. Around forty prominent Indian…

Round Down: The Complicated Response to Charlie Hebdo

As anyone paying even the remotest of attention to the news this past week, we all know this is a sobering time for journalists, satirists, publishing professionals, and supporters of free speech. The brutal murder of staff and police at Charlie Hebdo magazine offices by Muslim extremists, along with violent ricochets all over the greater metropolitan…

Back to School Special: Thoughtful Imitation

Back to School Special: Thoughtful Imitation

  I didn’t study creative writing as an undergraduate; it wasn’t an option. When I enrolled in the MFA program at University of Washington, what I craved more than workshop (which I’d experienced a few times in continuing education settings) was the elusive “craft” class: reading analytically not to make an argument about literature (which…