Death Poetry During a Pandemic
I teach poetry—not writing poetry but reading it. Students in my class start with a study of sound and...
On Not Swimming
First Lap The pools were all closed in the summer of 2020, because of the pandemic. I missed them...
Librarian, Read Thyself
“Why would you enter a dying field?” “You need a master’s degree to shelve books?” “Must be nice to...
Lady Credit and the 2008 Crisis Film
In 2020, with another financial crisis looming on the horizon, the US culture industry has appropriately mythologized the 2008...
Wind, Light
If a photograph is like a time capsule, a tribute that one pays in the present to the future,...
The Sentimental Media Event
…restrained from entering into more important concerns by political and civil oppression, sentiments become events, and reflection deepens what...
Old Age and the Landscapes of Memory: Vita Sackville-West’s All Passion Spent
The poet, novelist, and gardener Vita Sackville-West was not yet forty when she wrote her novel, All Passion Spent, published...
Journal-Writing in the Time of Corona
By beginning a diary, I was already conceding that life would be more bearable if I looked at it...
Carol Mejia LaPerle and Kelli Zaytoun
Dave Chappelle and Friends: Race, Remembrance, and Recovery
A deep swab of the nostril is rarely an auspicious beginning to a fun night out. But in the era of COVID-19, this particular...