Laura van den Berg is a short story writer and novelist known for her collections What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and The Isle of Youth, as well as her debut novel Find Me, which was listed as a “Best of 2015” by NPR,…
Exigency in Writing: CAConrad in Providence by Nicholas DiBenedetto
“A security guard asked, ‘What the fuck are YOU DOING?’ I replied, ‘I’M A POLLINATOR, I’M A POLLINATOR!!’” — CAConrad “Security Cameras and Flowers Dreaming the Elevation Allegiance” On the evening of Friday, April 22, I found myself driving a car full of undergraduates to Ada Books in Providence, Rhode…
On writing the teenage character by Asiya Haouchine
People give J.D. Salinger too much flak about his ability to write when it comes to Holden Caulfield of Salinger’s most famous novel, The Catcher in the Rye. When adults (and students) complain about Holden and discuss how annoying he is, I get why they might think that—Holden is whiny…
Deciphering DIAGRAM with Ander Monson by Allison McLellan and Alexandra Cichon (2016)
DIAGRAM is an online magazine that, as its name suggests, stands out in the unique use of obscure diagrams and schematics accompanying written works displayed in refreshing, innovative ways, including fiction, poetry, and comics. Although the magazine stands out by charging new ground, I find I cannot try to sum…
Revolutionizing Literature: Literary Magazines and the Digital Age by Alexandra Cichon
In the wee hours of the morning, with the DIAGRAM magazine tab open in my browser, I surf the magazine’s current issue, absorbing each pixel of avant-garde poems and clicking rapidly between diagrams. Besides my unequivocal love for the concept DIAGRAM pushes—“odd but good”— oozing from the crisp white and…
The Legacy of the Great Gatsby by Laura Ruttan
“An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald The great American novel, The Great Gatsby turned 91 yesterday. Little did he know the success that his novel would see when F. Scott…
An ode to Jim Harrison By Sten Spinella
Jim Harrison died on Saturday, March 26th, 2016. Don’t let the innocuous name fool you; Harrison was an extraordinary man. For those who watch the show Californication, consider Harrison, who spent a portion of his career in Hollywood working on screenplays, a more talented Hank Moody with a blind left…
MFA—Recipe For Success or Disaster? By Kate Monica
“Does any (MFA) program really improve anybody, as much as simply identifying them? And, after identifying them, not ruining them?” —Chang-rae Lee, On Such A Full Sea Getting an MFA seems like the natural progression for any English major looking to take a swing at making a career of writing….
Francis Ponge: Things, Doodads, and Whatchamacallits by Nicholas DiBenedetto
*Author’s Note: I’d like to thank Darcie Dennigan for introducing me to Francis Ponge and his poems, and Kerry Carnahan, Shannon Hearn, Emily Kraus, Erin Lynn, Eleanor Reeds, Matthew Ryan, and Brian Sneeden for engaging in an insightful discussion of selected works to help me form opinions on, and better…
Remembering Robert Frost by Emily Cantor
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life — It goes on.” —Robert Frost Today marks the 142nd birthday of the American poet Robert Lee Frost. Though Frost is most famous for his depictions of rural New England life, he was actually born in San Francisco….
