Dr. Martha Franks, professor at St. John’s College, taught Western historical literature abroad to Chinese high school students, from 2011-2014, in a course with the theme of ‘change.’ She worked through a Socratic method of engaging the students in conversation and carrying out the entire semester through class discussions. This was somewhat of a challenge…

When I was a girl I used to read with a kind of anxious-joyful intensity that bodily took me over. I would wedge myself into the space between my creaking bedframe and the wall of my bedroom, and the sunbeams would slant overhead, and the dust would get in my nose, and I would get…

The acts of language and speaking, or not speaking, feature prominently in Grace Talusan’s memoir, The Body Papers, winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, so it was truly a pleasure to be in conversation with her recently and to have the opportunity to ask her about the experience of writing her…

Kelly J. Beard and Adrian Koesters continue their conversation about the writing life, their experiences of faith, and the legacies of poverty and violence in this conclusion. Click Here for Part One of this conversation. * AEK: And of course, as you so movingly and astonishingly describe in your book, you take all the rules you…

Joan Gelfand describes her writing practice as a stove with all four burners firing at once. Looking at her journey thus far and the events still to come, one must agree. I picture her as a chef in a small but powerful kitchen. Burners lit, prep station lined with ingredients, dishes going in and out…

Dana Diehl: In this book, you use birds to reflect on your life. Why do you think birds have such power over you? Why do you think they illuminate your life more effectively than other animals might? Chelsea Biondolillo: Birds live on every continent. They have incredible diversity of size, shape, color, and behaviors. When…

The poet Mike Sonksen knows more about Los Ángeles than almost anyone. It began when he was a kid, his father and both grandfathers introducing him to the sprawling city by taking him on destination drives. Due to his father’s love of architecture, having, “taught me about…Frank Lloyd Write from an early age,” Sonksen “had…

Maya Sonenberg’s memoir/personal essay, After the Death of Shostakovich Père is an intermingling of family-related memories, authors that shaped her as a reader and as a writer, contemplations on grief, and how this coalesces around a sense of identity. Within four sections, Sonenberg takes a non-linear approach to examining her father’s, Jack Sonenberg’s, pivotal life…

Julián Herbert’s mother is dying from cancer in the Saltillo University Hospital. He sits by her side, keeping notes, remembering her life as a runaway and a prostitute, cataloging their family’s slow ascent into the middle class, sharing, at times, in her fever dreams. His bedside thoughts become the novel Tomb Song, a piece of…

Grief is unwelcome and, like an unwelcome guest, has a way of sticking around long after the party’s over, chairs are stacked, and the light’s turned out. Working around grief’s hidden edges, that’s what we struggle with, like breathing through glass. Paula Bomer’s exceptional new book of essays, Mystery and Mortality: Essays on the Sad,…