Angela Davis’ “Abolition Democracy”
Angela Davis has a pretty fantastic author’s byline. She’s run for vice-president of the United States twice on the Communist Party USA ticket, she’s been on the FBI’s “Ten Most…
The Short Stories of Breece D’J Pancake
http://assets.uvamagazine.org/images/uploads/2015/Spring_2015/BreecePancake.jpg Breece D’J Pancake killed himself at 27. Whenever someone who evidences some kind of brilliance kills themselves (or merely meets an untimely end,) it seems difficult to separate the…
The Guardian’s “The Counted,” Police Brutality, and Big News Close to Home
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/01/the-county-kern-county-deadliest-police-killings British newspaper The Guardian has been running a series of reports into police violence in America, and as part of that project, they produced one of the best pieces…
Herta Müller’s “The Passport” -Kicking Off “50 in 16”
Herta Müller’s novel “The Passport” is my first entry in my big reading project the year (reading fifty novel-length works by women in 2016). I had read her short story…
Reading on Your Phone, #Longreads, and Attention Spans
I rely on my phone more than I want to. I’m aware of my tendencies in this regard -I didn’t even get a smartphone until the beginning of 2015. And…
Why I’m keeping a Writing Log
I’ve started to keep a journal of my writing. More specifically, I’ve dedicated a paragraph-long section of my daily journal to writing about my writing, detailing the progress I’m making…
Carver’s “Ultramarine” and Narrative in Poetry
This was my favorite collection of poetry read in 2015. Carver’s poetry reads very easily for me, especially compared to a lot of other contemporary stuff. His poems have such…
Tobias Wolff’s “This Boy’s Life” and Why I Was Wrong About Memoir
Tobias Wolff’s book is one of those literary memoirs that helped define the genre. His recollections of a troubled boyhood often reflect poorly on the child he was, but are…
Colum McCann’s “Everything in This Country Must”
Colum McCann’s prose has some of the “Old Testament on LSD” lyricism of Cormac McCarthy, but mellowed by a much more linear and human narrative. “Everything in This Country…
Reading Goals For 2016
2015 was a bad year for reading women. Out of the 130 books I read, only 12 of them were written by female authors. The reasons for this are numerous…