Columns

Storyville: Dissecting Body, Mind, and Soul

January 27th, 2023

I wrote a previous column about body, mind, and soul in 2020, and I’d like to expand on that, dissect a few things, to show you what I mean. So let’s dig in.

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Dialog Journals and Writing Good Dialog

January 25th, 2023

Here’s a quick quote from an interview with Jason Isbell. Isbell is talking about seeing Garth Brooks live right before Garth got huge: I remember in 90, 91, I saw Garth at the state fair for a dollar right before the potbellied pig races, and I think “Friends in Low Places” came out like a week later. So it was–He probably never played in daylight again after that.

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A Walk Down Salinger Lane: The Legacy of an Author in a Small Town

January 24th, 2023

Images by Leah Dearborn Driving into Cornish, N.H. on a sleepy Sunday in January, it was clear that for my purpose, I’d either picked the worst time of year to visit or the best. Possibly the worst because there wasn’t another living soul to be found; just fields, barns, old chapels with peeling paint, and a fire station with strings of Christmas lights still hung along the front. My car wound down roads with pine trees and farmer’s cemeteries dusted in a soft coat of newly fallen snow.

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Book vs. Film: "We Have Always Lived in the Castle"

January 23rd, 2023

Reading a Shirley Jackson novel, one has the sense of being spellbound or beguiled. It isn’t so much that her writing is surreal, though there is a dreamlike quality to Jackson’s narratives — a quality that dips its toes into the realms of nightmares but never quite fully submerges itself, leaving readers unnervingly aware of horrors at the periphery of consciousness. Violence, too, often stays outside the margins, visible and vibrating, though never quite actualizing.

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You’re A Writer, But Is MasterClass Right For You?

January 21st, 2023

We’ve all seen the two-for-one deal that MasterClass offers around the holidays and experienced the temptation to buy a membership for a friend, so we can use the other to browse the writing courses. But are the classes worth the investment, especially if you’ve already been published? And how much can you really learn from Aaron Sorkin through a video if there’s no opportunity to interact or ask questions? This article seeks to address those concerns and give you a brief overview of some of the sessions offered by their most popular artists.

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Maybe We Could Stop Deconstructing Books?

January 19th, 2023

Deconstruction is the hottest trend in literary criticism since, well, forever, and even if you don’t know what it is, you’re probably doing it. And I come to you today with a simple request: Stop. What Is Literary Deconstruction? The first problem here is talking about what deconstruction is, in terms of books. This is a problem because “deconstruction” is a term used by lots of fancy people in fancy ways. French dudes made it up, a sure sign of fanciness. 

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Ditch Your New Books and Reread An Old Favorite, Instead

January 18th, 2023

Image via Vincenzo Malagoli It’s that glorious time of year when you have gift cards in hand, new reading goals to strive towards, and upcoming books you’re looking forward to reading. Maybe you’ve committed to reading your bookshelves and conquering your neverending and always growing TBR. But the nights are long and cold, and sometimes, the best read is the one you know you’re going to love. Why not dive into a reread instead? Here are seven books to ditch your new books for.

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Some Kidlit Debuts To Keep An Eye Out For in 2023

January 15th, 2023

Listen — I love kidlit. I’ve been a big fan of young adult literature for years, and I’ve started reading more middle grade and even younger books (Chapter books! Picture books!) lately, and they’re all so good. If you’re also a fan of kidlit, and you’re wondering what new authors to keep an eye out for in 2023, you’re in luck: here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of kidlit by debut authors to read in 2023.

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You Don’t Have to Write About Everything, Actually

January 12th, 2023

In the final season of BoJack Horseman, there’s an episode where writer Diane Nguyen laments that if she doesn’t write her book of personal essays about trauma now, she never will. Even though what she really wants is to write a fun YA girl detective series. As a viewer and writer, it was incredible to see this on a TV show. An actual discussion about what writers feel obligated to write. Depending on your life experiences, you may feel obligated to write about: gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, sexuality, neurodivergence, trauma, etc.

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Book vs. Film: "The Pale Blue Eye"

January 11th, 2023

Edgar Allan Poe is widely considered the inventor of detective fiction, and his death is something of an enigma (was it the result of his alcoholism, or something more sinister?), so it seems fitting that the author should be the subject of a fictional murder mystery narrative involving a kind of hardboiled detective transplanted to the 1830s.

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