Blog


State book of Massachusetts?

Some schoolkids petitioned their representative to declare Moby-Dick Massachusetts’ state book. The Boston Globe suggests other possibilities.

Read more



The periodic returnee father

In Zadie Smith’s “Hanwell Senior,” published in The New Yorker this week, a father gives his young son some penny bangers and then disappears.

Read more




Happy weekend from the absent father

  Zone Johnston, my granny’s father, was always dragging his wife and kids to carpentry jobs throughout Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and beyond, and then abandoning them in favor of a new pretty face. According to my mom, “[his wife’s] people would have to come to where they were and take them home until Zone finished his work and wandered back . . .

Read more



Newsletter Signup

For regular updates, subscribe to my free newsletter.