Literature

In May 2018 I was invited to give a keynote speech at a symposium held at the Literarisches Colloquium in Berlin. The broader symposium focused on the realities of African…

Intro Wherein you will learn of David Leo Rice’s ten mental locks, Marcy Dermansky’s ability to see romance in the confluence of pierogis and roaches, how Stephen Dunn’s poetry makes…

[T]he trained hand does not forget its skill. –Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1950 Your past is on loop turn it off see this possible future and be in it –Björk,…

I’m changing the format here a bit. I’ll have some words on the month’s contributions at the end. For now, let us celebrate the contributors. Kerry Cohen was just on…

In shimmery, lean language, Melissa Stephenson has produced a stunning memoir, Driven, which is about cars, death, life, and ultimately, momentum. It’s a book that is miraculously full of heart,…

The summer I turned fourteen, my best friend Katie was in love with the chiseled lifeguard who presided over her community pool from his chair high up in the heavens.…

  Danielle Susi: In the introduction of the anthology, you note that you began your conversation with Nightboat in 2017, so I’m wondering how long it took to compile and…

Jamie Townsend: Hi Ted, thanks for taking the time to talk with me. I want to start off asking you about In Brazen Fontanelle Aflame‘s relationship to Oakland specifically, but…

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet;” – Juliet, Act II, Scene II of Romeo and Juliet by William…

About five and half years ago, I was applying to MFA programs and headed to my first AWP conference. In the airport on our way to Seattle, a friend introduced…

We live in a genre-obsessed literary culture, but there have always been border-crossers among us. Some of the most powerful prose of the 19th and 20th centuries was written by…

I remember the clarity of that day’s sky, horizon-filling and cornflower blue, the sunshine that dominated the quad beyond the windows of the university library. Which is ironic, since I…

I’ve been reading Selah Saterstrom’s writing for thirteen years, beginning with her first novel, The Pink Institution, which I discovered in 2005, a year after it was published. I bought…

Ludic Writing is an offshoot of the Session Report series, which explores the intersection of narrative and broader themes of game design by focusing on a specific tabletop game each…