Issue 13 | May-June 2011

Meeting the Body in the Body of Language: Notes on Character in Carver, Stein, and Holland

To Introduce “My friend Mel McGinnis was talking. Mel McGinnis is a cardiologist, and sometimes that gives him the right.” —Raymond Carver, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”…

All That Remains: On the Fiction of John Hawkes

In a recent interview, Ben Marcus resisted being called an “experimental writer,” asking rather impatiently, “Does anyone self-identify as experimental? Anyone?” Apparently Marcus is not much aware of his predecessor,…

In Pursuit of the Debutant

What to make of Stephen Sturgeon after reading his first book of poetry, Trees of the Twentieth Century? Sturgeon, the debutant? Sturgeon, the first major poet of his generation? Sturgeon, producer…

An Invitation to “Torment”

Torment, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is great pain or anguish, physical or mental. The word is derived from torquere, to twist, as when a rope that is part…