“I tread warily on the ground of this story. Still, there is a story to be told. And your book is too good and cost you too much in blood to go unsung. Let us see, then, if I write you a letter—if I pretend no one is listening—if I can speak more freely.” That’s …
Perhaps you know that special suffocating effect of 763 toys? (By the way, this is Part 2 of a brief series called The Art of Deletion—editing a piece of writing down to its essential core.) It doesn’t matter how much you vow to raise your child in spacious, creative simplicity. Well meaning relatives cannot allow …
It’s been a while since a book intrigued me as much as Aviya Kushner’s The Grammar of God. I’ve always cringed upon hearing people argue for “the inerrancy of Scripture.” I understand they’re trying to bolster the credibility of the Bible (as if it needs defenders, and doesn’t stand on its own as a great …
Our stories came back with Xs slashing out entire pages. The better pages were stripped of paragraphs. A line through a sentence began to seem mild. This was when I studied with a particularly vigorous writer/editor in the Bennington Writing Seminars. I requested him as a teacher, in part, because I wondered if I was up for it. I …