Uncategorized
-
-for Lulu and Gogo Lucy doesn’t look back. She climbs in her idiosyncratic way—right foot, left knee, right foot, left knee—like one of Margot’s patterns from school. (Which comes next?) And I climb behind her, a human safety net against the treacherously steep and impossibly narrow staircase leading up to the slide. When she does
-
Jólabókaflóð, or Christmas Book Flood, is a literary tradition a number of American readers have been borrowing over the last few years. It centers on buying books for friends and loved ones and giving them on Christmas Eve. In this way, you can share your love of books and spend the evening reading by the
-
Friends, If COVID in 2020 was a roaring lion that broke down our door, maimed us, and left us collecting disability, COVID in 2021 has been a lamb braying incessantly. At least for us. Last year, we continued to wear masks and practice social distancing in our respective schools, but with the advent of vaccines
-
Originally posted on K-State English: Steven Miller (MA ’15) “Late Have I Taught You” Whenever I told people I wanted to study English, they would invariably reply, “So you want to be a teacher.” I would laugh—ha!—and tell them I’d never be a teacher. I wanted to be a great novelist. Apparently, they knew more…
-
I decided to start promoting my debut mystery novel, How Everything Turns Away, at the local library and coffee shop. Here are some highlights! Overall, it has been a successful launch for the book. In-person sales are steadily trickling in, a few each day, and my rankings at the online book sellers are moving up
-
In this classic 1953 story by Flannery O’Connor, a grandmother subtly navigates her family’s travel plans…with disastrous results. Read the story here first. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an absolute favorite of mine to teach. Unlike, “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” or “Revelation,” it resists a straight-forward moralistic reading. While O’Connor’s
-
American short story master George Saunders takes on four Russian masters, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Gogol in his new book. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is part story collection, part master class, and part meditation on the writing life. I’ve always struggled with the short story form, which is ironic, at least
-
Perhaps the most popular mystery novel of all time, this classic novel pits a nearly superhuman detective against a nearly unsolvable mystery—all in the claustrophobic confines of a snowed-in train. What makes this novel so popular and adaptable? Let’s take a look. Neither of the film adaptations I’ve seen do this fantastic novel justice. As
-
Last year’s Edgar Award winner for best novel, Elly Griffin’s The Stranger Diaries looks at what happens when love turns deadly. Buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Diaries-Elly-Griffiths/dp/1328577856 This was a particular favorite of mine from this year. For one, Clare Cassidy is an high school English teacher obsessed with a mystery writer, and it’s always nice to
Steven J Kolbe 