3-Minute Book Review: Kate Schultz on Lauren Moseley

January 07, 2019

Three-Minute Review: Kate Schultz on Lauren Moseley's Big Windows (Carnegie Mellon Press, 2018) -   5) What snack should you have while reading this book? A ripe, red, homegrown tomato. In “Summer,” Moseley’s speaker describes a toxic relationship with a volatile partner. The partner likens the speaker’s hair to a “wilting magnolia bloom,” curses and throws dishes when accidentally breaking an egg ...

3-Minute Book Review: Katharine Coldiron on Stacy Austin Egan

December 18, 2018

Three Minute Book Review: Katharine Coldiron on Stacy Austin Egan’s You Could Stop It Here (PANK Books, 2018) -   1) What book is this book’s nemesis? House of Leaves. This book privileges simple storytelling and immature voices. Not in a bad way: these stories showcase voices cusping maturity, tiptoeing up to it, attracted to it like moths to a weak bulb. And the writing is so plain and pure that it ...

Some Attempts at (Re)Definition: Story Arc

December 05, 2018

I have been thinking for a while about how our attempts to define craft terms influence our students’ (and our own) aesthetics, and I have wanted to try other definitions. The first post is here. – Character arc: how a character changes or fails to change Story arc: how the world in which the character lives is changed or fails to be changed I was taught character arc as how a character changes or fails ...

Some Attempts at (Re)Definition: Conflict

December 03, 2018

I have been thinking for a while about how our attempts to define craft terms influence our students’ (and our own) aesthetics, and I have wanted to try other definitions. The first post is here. - Conflict: what gives or takes away the illusion of free will How I Was Taught It I was taught that conflict is what stands in the way of desire. Man vs. Man, Man vs. World, Man vs. Self. The other component of ...