Selections
“Wild Spirit: An Appreciation of the Artist William Grill”
A lyric essay about award-winning British illustrator and author of The Wolves of Currumpaw, William Grill, with Grill’s comments on art, illustration, wolves, and color-pencil techniques in illustrating. Reproductions of pencil art from Grill’s notebooks. Link-Vol 40 #1, fall 2023 Weber Journal, (free viewing)
“The Expulsion of Karl Ove Knausgaard”
Personal essay that compares work by Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard and American visual artist Fred Tomaselli. Link to The Normal School web site, purchase option of Vol. 8. Issue #1.
“Eye of the Storm: on The Collected Works of Lydia Davis”
An appreciation and review of the collected fictions of award-winning author and translator Lydia Davis. Preview of essay–as published in Salmagundi–via JStor. Also anthologized in Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 426.
“Missing Pages”/ Oh Reader! Issue 13
Personal essay about a decades-long quest to find a lost beloved book and the artist who created it. Link to Oh Reader web site for purchase option Issue #13.
Personal essay in the collective voice that describes coming-of-age at The Brearley School for Girls in Manhattan. This essay also appears in Every Father’s Daughter Anthology, and in Bequeath: Essays. Link to The Normal School web site. Purchase option for Volume 6, issue #1
“Closing Night for My Bit Part”/The New York Times, Modern Love
Personal essay from the “Modern Love” column recalls a 1980s summer-theater romance. The atmosphere and themes of a drama by Anton Chekhov shade memories of a young actor and a distant past. Link to the New York Times 2008 essay, through a non-subscriber paywall.
Speculative essay about a “found photograph” in the Tang Museum. 1st Graders pose for Time, history, and destiny. Direct free link to essay on Speculative Nonfiction web site, Issue #2: “What History Teaches”
Speculative essay about a “found photograph” in the Tang Museum. An image of a fiery woman and a scarecrow stirs thoughts of Vladimir Nabokov, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and the author’s own past. Direct free link: Accelerate, Volume 3.
On Film: “Lambs and Tigers: The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys”
A review of the 2002 coming-of-age drama directed by Peter Care and starring the talented young Kieran Culkin. Direct link to the Chronicle Review, visible with free subscription.
On Film: “The Writing Teacher on the Screen”
Thoughts on several cinematic depictions of creative writing teachers. Do the movies get it right? Direct link to The Chronicle Review, visible with free subscription.