Essays
November 28, 2012
Dispatch from the Edge of Literary Culture 11
by Eric Obenauf
In the process of becoming what you want to be, you realize who you are. We had to move to Columbus, Ohio, in order to discover our identity as a press.
November 21, 2012
Thankful for Such Friends 4
by Edra Ziesk
What constitutes friendship? What defines it? Proximity? Duration? Frequency?
November 15, 2012
The March of Progress Is Never Neat: Merle Miller’s On Being Different 1
by Paul Morton
If Miller’s book is an argument for dignity and acceptance, it is also an argument against politeness. It is an argument against letting stray homophobic remarks from your liberal friends just go in the interest of keeping the evening pleasant. It is an argument against letting someone change the topic of conversation when they tell you they feel uncomfortable about gay marriage. It’s an argument for demanding the part of the territory to which you are entitled.
November 7, 2012
Double Take: A Momentary Encounter With a Murderer and his Fictional Likeness 1
by Mark O'Connell
One evening a couple of weeks ago, I passed a murderer in the front square of Trinity College Dublin. It was Malcolm MacArthur, a man in his late sixties who spent the last thirty years in prison for killing two strangers in July of 1982. He is arguably the most notorious murderer in Ireland’s notoriously murderous history.
November 5, 2012
Confessions of an Analogian Writing for the Webs 22
by Sonya Chung
In that moment, I got it — what all this fuss about social networking was about. Give the tools a try, just be yourself; write what you care about. Weird things will start to happen.
November 1, 2012
Bridge Across the Country: On the Literature of the Midwest 24
by Eric Shonkwiler
For all the Midwest’s evenhandedness, much of it has been embittered by the recession, and the work ethic we’re known for, when without direction, becomes destructive. The literature of this Midwest shows this side of us, the hardened and hungry folk. It forgets, largely, the generous people I know they co-exist with.