“You tried to tell your story to people who didn’t know how to listen.” – Carmen Maria Machado, ‘In The Dream House’ As a reader and a writer, I have […]
Subgenre Slam! Slashers Edition
“It’s almost October, though, and horror is my religion.” – Stephen Graham Jones, ‘My Heart Is A Chainsaw’ Welcome to Subgenre Slam!, a column series I will start today, break […]
Friday Links: Exile In The Swamp Edition
“As soon as they left the river and entered the bayou, the landscape grew denser, twitchier, closer, as if the trees had bent over to give them a sniff.” – […]
11 Chicago Books You Should Read
“I say I’m from Chicago and / folks get excited. I mean, they / light up like they got gossip to tell.” – Taylor Byas, “You from ‘Chi-raq?’” First off, […]
Friday Links: Chicago Over Everything Edition
“It’s one thing to know a place on paper, but it’s never any good to be totally out of place with no sense of the turf you’re in…” – Theodore […]
11 Monster Books You Should Read
“If you’re not a beautiful monster, then you’re a villager.” – Stephen Graham Jones, ‘Mongrels’ Not sure what’s come over me, but the urge has struck me to write some […]
Friday Links: It’s Percival Everett Week Edition
“White people often spent time admiring their survival of one thing or another.” – Percival Everett, ‘James’ To read a Percival Everett book is to read a book with all […]
Does Your Book Have Buildings and Trees?
“and the days rummaging his eyes / and the nights flickering through a slit / of narrow bars. hips. thighs.” – from ‘does Your House have Lions?’ by Sonia Sanchez […]
Friday Links: Good Books About Rough Stuff Edition
“Be literal. Be devoured by light.” – John Allen Taylor, “History of My Godlessness” This poetry week, I am thinking about the power of literature to give voice to the […]
No Matter How Bad Things Get, I’m Still Better At Life Than Elon Musk And Jeff Bezos
“fuck it, Dude, let’s go bowling” – Walter, ‘The Big Lebowski’ This has been the hardest column to begin since I started this blog. Usually, when people say that, it’s […]