For the full essay, see it on The Rumpus. Originally published on December 2, 2014. -- Nonfiction is hard to pin down. When I tell people I write nonfiction, I assume they imagine 800-page biographies of dead presidents, or misery memoirs about years
The other day I was in a yoga class, and I found myself wondering how the Christopher Columbus play turns out in Junie B., First Grader: Shipwrecked by Barbara Park. Yes, this is what it has come down to: I think
For the full essay, see it on Fiction Advocate. Originally published on October 20, 2014. --- Good news, feminists! Not all hope is lost! Pick up a copy of this slim book and carry it with you to be reminded that yes, really,
Sorry, I can’t write, I’m too busy crying. The Babysitting Charge asked me to read this book out loud to her twice in one afternoon, and both times I barely managed to keep it together. Even Superheroes Get Diabetes by Sue
I have been forced, because the Babysitting Charge demands it, to read the book Harriet the Hamster Fairy out loud, every afternoon, while the Charge eats her snack, for the better part of a week, and let me just say,
For the full essay, see it on The Rumpus. Originally published on August 18, 2014. --- Let me disclose two things up front. This past year I was an editorial intern at the Frances Goldin Literary Agency, working for, among others, Monica Byrne’s
For the full essay, see it on The Rumpus. Originally published on June 2, 2014. --- 1 Janet Malcolm’s latest book, a collection of her essays on artists and writers, is titled Forty-One False Starts after the opening profile on the artist David Salle.
Sometimes it seems that I have spent most of my MFA in nonfiction listening to professors and students alike rave about Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. While I have yet to read her acclaimed narrative nonfiction account of
For the full essay, see it on Fiction Advocate. Originally published on February 27, 2014. --- I met the other Elizabeth Bartels at a family reunion in New Jersey when I was in middle school. I had long been used to sharing my
For the full essay, see it on Fiction Advocate. Originally published on December 26, 2013. --- The first thing I notice about the book is its weight. The Wes Anderson Collection by Matt Zoller Seitz is almost a square foot large and weighs