While my graduate writing program at UofM is on break for the summer, I’ve adopted Chicago as my temporary home.
From Inspiration to Art: Abstract Sculpture in Chicago (Part I) Read More »
In the arts, repetition put to smart use bears fruit almost instantly. Take a phrase of music or a line of poetry and read it, hum it, then repeat it. Again and again. Crack the circle open and you find a spiral, spinning, a single pattern among many.
Of Artichokes and Lightning Bolts Read More »
There is a lot to talk about when I call my father in India from Cuba. The calls are expensive, but the connection is crystalline. Nonetheless, it is hard to stay focused when my consciousness ping-pongs between a Malayali courtyard and the passage way of a Havana apartment building.
A Life in Three Acts: Lakshmi Is on the Line Read More »
It’s that difficult time of year when almost everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is celebrating the return of the sun and I’m longing for morning drizzles and cool, overcast afternoons.
In which I admit to wishing we could skip straight to September Read More »
I’ve been haunted for much of this month by a bird. Not a real bird, but an animal depicted in “The Documents of Spring,” a poem by Rick Barot that appears in the latest issue of The Asian American Literary Review, which is by far the fattest literary journal to have landed on my doorstep in the past year.
Not Just for Asian American Readers: The Asian American Literary Review Read More »
William Langland is old school. He’s Medieval. About seven years ago I read the 7500 line “B-Text” version of his masterpiece, Piers Plowman.
Where’d You Get Your Information From, Huh? Read More »
There’s no disputing that I’m a tightly wound person. Once, I was so nervous about serving beer at a party I threw in my parents’ basement, that I numbered the beer cans and made people sign them out. Years later, in the middle of a Mardi Gras Crawfish Boil in New Orleans, I snuck into the host’s house to check my email for updates about a class project.
Shivasana Your Heart Out: Yoga and the Writing Life Read More »
Tonight I will be home by ten. If I’m lucky I’ll finish this post and still have time to read another chapter, maybe two, before my mind begins to melt. I’m 25, unwed, no kids, and except for the meeting across town I’ll spend nearly the whole day in my neighborhood.
I entered my Havana apartment and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Cuban boyfriend had already turned one of the four available channels to the Jimmy Carter press conference. It was the statesman’s second visit to Cuba; the first was in 2002.
A Life in Three Acts: Tourism and Transcendence in Cuba’s Escambray Read More »
I’m new here! I am: 1) The interim fiction editor of This Fine Publication, Michigan Quarterly Review. 2) A blogger. For whom do I blog? I blog for thee.
In Which We Direct You To A Most Excellent Writer, For Purposes of Laughing Read More »
