Essay – Michigan Quarterly Review

Essay

Against Taste: On the Craft of Criticism

How does one go about defining bad art? As an instructor of creative writing, in the classroom, in office hours, via email, I diplomatically affirmed one student or another in their appreciation of poets often derided publicly on social media or privately in casual conversation between writers. Instapoets. Stadium poets. Popular poets. Outside of the […]

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How does one go about defining bad art? As an instructor of creative writing, in the classroom, in office hours, via email, I diplomatically affirmed one student or another in their appreciation of poets often derided publicly on social media or privately in casual conversation between writers. Instapoets. Stadium poets. Popular poets. Outside of the

Devastating. The Damages that “Too Old” Inflicts on Politics and Society

1The Good Father, Turned into an Enfeebled Grampa Ageism, merging with other disreputable prejudices, drove President Joe Biden out of the 2024 race. However you now think about his renunciation, it was another win for a set of horrifying national biases that, if they remain unopposed, will now afflict Americans as we grow older. In

Devastating. The Damages that “Too Old” Inflicts on Politics and Society Read More »

1The Good Father, Turned into an Enfeebled Grampa Ageism, merging with other disreputable prejudices, drove President Joe Biden out of the 2024 race. However you now think about his renunciation, it was another win for a set of horrifying national biases that, if they remain unopposed, will now afflict Americans as we grow older. In

Untranslatable Intimacies: A Review of Ann Jäderlund’s Lonespeech

Lonespeech by Ann Jäderlund, translated by Johannes Gröransson. Published by Nightboat Books. May, 2024. 96 pages. $17.95 paperback. Originally published in Swedish in 2019 as Ensamtal by publishing house Albert Bonniers Forlag. It is befitting that as I wrote this review, autocorrect continually asked me to rewrite Lonespeech as two separate words. Ann Jäderlund’s newest

Untranslatable Intimacies: A Review of Ann Jäderlund’s Lonespeech Read More »

Lonespeech by Ann Jäderlund, translated by Johannes Gröransson. Published by Nightboat Books. May, 2024. 96 pages. $17.95 paperback. Originally published in Swedish in 2019 as Ensamtal by publishing house Albert Bonniers Forlag. It is befitting that as I wrote this review, autocorrect continually asked me to rewrite Lonespeech as two separate words. Ann Jäderlund’s newest

Hobbyhorse: Excerpt from “My Childhood in Pieces”

23 DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, HIGH-SCHOOL EDITIONI started crying at unexpected times. I burst into tears on the wayto school. I started to write things down to see if I felt better. WhatI wrote came out in lines. I called it poetry. EYEWASHMy eyes were red from crying. We had a little blue eyewash

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23 DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, HIGH-SCHOOL EDITIONI started crying at unexpected times. I burst into tears on the wayto school. I started to write things down to see if I felt better. WhatI wrote came out in lines. I called it poetry. EYEWASHMy eyes were red from crying. We had a little blue eyewash

Sittenfeld Superfan

“This was the one boarding school story I’d never told,” teases Lee Fiora in the opening paragraphs of “Lost but Not Forgotten,” the last of a dozen stories in Curtis Sittenfeld’s new short story collection Show Don’t Tell. It’s a juicy opener, one that prompted me to arrange an interview with Sittenfeld over Zoom, ostensibly

Sittenfeld Superfan Read More »

“This was the one boarding school story I’d never told,” teases Lee Fiora in the opening paragraphs of “Lost but Not Forgotten,” the last of a dozen stories in Curtis Sittenfeld’s new short story collection Show Don’t Tell. It’s a juicy opener, one that prompted me to arrange an interview with Sittenfeld over Zoom, ostensibly

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