I am 43 years old. I am Jewish. I wrote a novel about the Holocaust. I grew up in a synagogue headed by an Auschwitz survivor and by his wife, also an Auschwitz survivor. I have taught my students work by Primo Levi, Aharon Appelfeld, Charlotte Delbo. But until this month, I had never read the diary of Anne Frank.
On Never Having Read Anne Frank Read More »
* Kevin Haworth *
Many of my beginning fiction students believe that once they’ve figured out the ending to a story, they are ready to begin writing. But those of us with more experience know the traps involved in that kind of thinking. Writing toward a preconceived ending—writing deterministically, in other words—can help you finish a draft. But it can just as quickly lead to airless, overly managed stories. Only by opening up the story, again and again, can we really find its territory. Probabilistic fiction, so to speak.
Probabilistic Fiction Read More »
* Kevin Haworth *
What if we assigned books the way that many of us buy our food—from the local outward. What would a locally-sourced book list look like?
The Case for Locally Sourced Books Read More »
* Kevin Haworth *
In Israel and Gaza, there are sounds that tell you when someone is trying to kill you. In Israel, a high-pitched siren signals an incoming missile and sends everyone to the nearest cover—either a public shelter, or the basement of your apartment, or your stairwell, or, if you’re on the highway, huddled between your car and the concrete divider, the best of bad circumstances.
Aan Alle Slachtoffers Read More »
* Kevin Haworth *
This fluidity, this sense of a city always being built—all this became even more apparent a couple of weeks ago, as Tel Aviv welcomed a reported 100,000 tourists, mostly from Europe, for the annual Pride Parade.
Concrete and Stone Read More »
* Kevin Haworth *
I had started driving at six-thirty that morning, heading from my home in Appalachian Ohio to the central part of Iowa. Once I escaped Columbus’s orbit (and its early morning traffic), the roads became so straight I steered with a single finger on the wheel. With cruise control and well-balanced tires, driving through the middle states is an act requiring little intervention. Miles passed under the car like loose thoughts. Every time I blinked, another half-hour had gone by.
Out in the Middle of Somewhere Read More »
* Kevin Haworth *
The core problem with Muppets Most Wanted is that it contains no grief. In the new movie, the Muppets are back, with the world no longer needing to mourn their absence. Miss Piggy, too, has returned, filling that pork-shaped hole in Kermit’s chest. Yes, things are happening—shows are being staged and crimes are being solved—but it all just feels like objects in motion staying in motion. Kermit gets shipped off to a gulag, but, notably, he doesn’t seem all that sad about it.
Toward a Muppet Theory of Literature Read More »
* Kevin Haworth *
The final, abbreviated season of the HBO television show Treme, airing now, is an opportunity to reflect on what that series has done better than any other recent television experience: depict the working life of creative people.
Play for That Money Read More »
