A look at the essay and its unique form
In the fall, I taught English 366: The Essay at Lake Forest College, a writing workshop devoted to the study of the essay as a unique genre. We were not...
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‘Artful’ by Ali Smith reads slapdash
At least since whoever wrote "The Arabian Nights" invented postmodernism, we have been visited by metafiction — literature folding in on itself to address its own fictionality. At its best...
Second volume of ‘Pogo’ shows Walt Kelly’s political bite
Okefenokee Swamp, February 1951: An alligator accuses an owl of treason for suggesting that English is the language of the "Uninety States." "Englishmens is foreigners, isn't they? Is you a...
Second volume of ‘Pogo’ shows Walt Kelly’s political bite
Okefenokee Swamp, February 1951: An alligator accuses an owl of treason for suggesting that English is the language of the "Uninety States." "Englishmens is foreigners, isn't they? Is you a...
Review: ‘Tenth of December’ by George Saunders
If I told you that George Saunders' new collection of stories is full of talking snack cakes, you would probably be like, "Oh, good, no one captures the morally ambiguous...
George Saunders gets real in ‘Tenth of December’
If I told you that George Saunders' new collection of stories is full of talking snack cakes, you would probably be like, "Oh, good, no one captures the morally ambiguous...
EC Comics Library collections display the grace of cartooning
If you're a fan of older comic books and comic strips, Fantagraphics is your Santa Claus. The 21st century has proved a golden age for the reproduction of classic comics,...
EC Comics Library collections display the grace of cartooning
If you're a fan of older comic books and comic strips, Fantagraphics is your Santa Claus. The 21st century has proved a golden age for the reproduction of classic comics,...
Poetry in neglect
In 2012, as usual, the poetry books that received the most attention were published by a handful of giant publishing houses — Jorie Graham's "Place" (Ecco); Frederick Seidel's "Nice Weather"...
‘Quick Question’ is classic John Ashbery
It is happening again. Into the mawkish nature documentaries and faddish elliptical doldrums of American poetry, John Ashbery is sticking his clown nose. For nearly a half-century Ashbery has been...