-
First Fiction
Alexander CheeThere is an exercise I have my students do, one I invented. Think of a story your family tells about you to any newcomer, usually from your early childhood.
-
Re-Vision
Mitchell S. JacksonLet me tell you how I got popped. Let me start with a couple of hours pre the arrest, when I was in medias res cooking dope in the house I shared—a...
-
The Invention of the Self Is Another Kind of Fiction
Krys LeeOnce there was a child who hid from her father. She imagined him with blades for hands, she saw herself as strung on a leash that he owned.
-
What Was It You Wanted?
Tom PiazzaI like spending time with the writers I like. I don’t like reading authors I don’t like.
-
Escaping the Prison of Realism
Darryl PinckneyI was surprised in Elizabeth Hardwick’s writing class at Barnard when she told us that the mystery of Jay Gatsby was that he was Jewish.
-
Great Fiction is a Force for Peace
Roxana RobinsonAn archaeologist friend told me recently about the discovery of an oral tradition stretching back for 10,000 years. They were stories told by...
-
The Drip Drip Drip of Another Consciousness
Jane SmileyLast night, I dreamed about my novel Ten Days In the Hills, not one of my best received, but certainly one that I enjoyed writing.
-
The Story of My Life (and Yours)
Tiphanie YaniqueAt the New School, where I am a professor, I teach a literature seminar called Girls: Narratives of the Girl Child. Every text we read features a girl.