There’s no question that Tony Doerr is one of our most lyrical and thoughtful writers. If you haven’t read any of his work, I highly recommend his two collections of stories as a good place to start: The Shell Collector […]
Thank-You for Making Your Broken Bird World
Yesterday I bid adieu to my Facebook wall and all the people who live there (for as long as I can, I think). It felt really interesting to wake up this morning. That strange convolution was no longer tangled up […]
The State of the War on Climate Change: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
Talking Writing magazine just posted an interview I did with climate activist and environmental journalist Bill McKibben called “We Don’t Require Leaders.” I urge you to go check it out. McKibben surprised me with some of his answers. The whole […]
No Translation Possible: On Reading Roberto Bolaño
“Nothing happened today. And if anything did, I’d rather not talk about it, because I didn’t understand it.” – Roberto Bolaño, “The Savage Detectives” I have discovered the work of Chilean poet/novelist/essayist, Roberto Bolaño, in the past year. For years […]
“Natural Symbols”: On the Brutality of Popular Opinion and Why You Think You’re Always Right
Anthropologist Mary Douglas published a book called Natural Symbols 45 years ago. It’s a gateway into thinking about how individuals encode their perceptions of reality through the complex cosmology of cultural symbols they live in — bodily or “natural” symbols in particular. The […]
“Writing Blue Highways”: My Interview with William Least Heat-Moon
Over at Talking Writing they just posted an interview I did with the great American travel writer and chronicler of deep culture, William Least Heat-Moon. I had a lot of fun researching and preparing for this Q&A session. I think Bill […]
“Magical Thinking” Without Defining Writing Talent
Over at The Millions Michael Bourne (the writer, not the center fielder) has an essay this week called “Magical Thinking: Talent and the Cult of Craft.” Lots of great comments and thinking come after his pretty thoughtful exploration of the question […]
Happy Birthday to Jeffy (Buckley)
#137339618 / gettyimages.com I’m about to bombard all my Facebook peeps and Twitter followers with a breadcrumb path of links to Jeff Buckley videos. No apologies folks. Jeffy would have been 48 on Monday, November 17 (my mom’s birthday…she’s wherever Jeff may […]
Divesting in Trustee Wussyness: College Campuses and Climate Change Action
This spring Swarthmore College’s students, alumni and faculty stood up to demand that the school’s Board of Managers (their trustees) divest funding in fossil fuel businesses and technologies. I reported on that here in “The State of the War on […]
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