I’ve been thinking about death again lately. Not morbidly – just because it has touched my life more often in the last few years than in all the years beforehand.
This week, though, I’m thinking about death because the mother of an old friend passed away suddenly after a short, severe battle with cancer. Her youngest [...]

By now, many of us have started to recover from Jubilee – a time filled with learning, laughter, and a lot of challenging thoughts. One of the most vivid images I’ll remember from Jubilee 2010 is John Perkins on Sunday morning, leaning over the side of the stage as if he’s about to dive off [...]

It’s coming! It’s really coming once again!
I don’t actually  mean Jubilee (though I’m so excited for Friday!). I mean Lent.
For Western Christians, the Lenten season begins this Wednesday – Ash Wednesday. (Our Eastern Orthodox brethren begin celebrating the Great Lent today, though this year we celebrate Easter – Pascha for them – on the same [...]

I’m teaching research writing this semester, and part of that class is to introduce students to what it means to be part of the scholarly community. It’s kind of hard to explain what that means, especially to students who are in their first year of college. The distinction between high school and college is still [...]

Derek’s recent post on reading was not only spot-on, but it dealt with a topic that I’m musing on in preparation for a workshop at Jubilee in a few weeks. I wrote a piece for the March issue of Comment (coming soon!) on the same topic recently, and talked to a number of people about [...]

Writers like to talk about writing. It’s sublime; it’s a creative struggle; it’s the way to find yourself; it’s the way to change the world; it’s devastating. Shelves are filled with books on writing and the writing life. Writers claim a special place in society, fancying themselves prophets, priests, or possibly just misunderstood.
My outlook is [...]

I got in the elevator today in my apartment building to head to the office. I live on the eighth floor, but on the seventh floor the elevator stopped and an older man got in, carrying a tan leather bag and wearing a green coat.
I had pulled out my iPhone when I got into the [...]

Over at The Millions (which is rapidly becoming my favorite book review on the web, partially because I can – cough – get it on my Kindle and read it underground), Deena Drewis writes in defense of editors. Notably, she talks about the now-infamous relationship between Raymond Carver and his editor, Gordon Lish. Most American high [...]