(This post is one in a series about the best books ever written. The first post in the series is here.) There are many books by Yasunari Kawabata floating around in discussions of “best books” over the last few decades but I would suggest that this, probably his best-known work,… Read More »Snow Country
(This post is one in a series about the best books ever written. The first post in the series is here.) Divergent, the first of the series by the same name from Veronica Roth, is a clear demonstration not only of what youth-focused literature can be but what it should… Read More »Divergent
(This post is one in a series about the best books ever written. The first post in the series is here.) I did indeed like Angels and Demons enough to put it on my list of best books ever written. And that may shock some people — actually, that does… Read More »Angels and Demons
As many of you are no doubt aware, I teach creative writing at the undergraduate and graduate levels, sometimes to high school students, too. I believe that there is a far too significant break between the study of literature and that of writing. We often are forced to pretend that… Read More »Writing a Future?
what once was blackyou turned to whitewith each stroke of chalkleaving its marknot simply on vertical surfacesdepicting curvesand anglesbut the brightness of understanding on mindsclouded with reflections of childhoodand the silliness of the moment the past retreatedinto modern whiteboards calling to youto turn those white linesinto colorsmyriad and brightwhose new… Read More »a life at the board
I see a woman riding a horse through the village. She has incredible concentration as the horse gallops down the narrow street. I can’t help thinking how impressive it is to have such direction, such focus to get to a destination rather than being prepared to get there someday, eventually,… Read More »Riding the Moment