01.082018September 10, 2019
News Flash: There’s No Central Office Called #MeToo

News Flash: There’s No Central Office Called #MeToo

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1 I’d already had a bad day when I read Daphne Merkin’s now-infamous Op-Ed in The New York Times, “Publicly, We Say #MeToo. Privately, We...

16.082016September 9, 2019
Report from the Field: A Working-Class Academic on Loving Elena Ferrante

Report from the Field: A Working-Class Academic on Loving Elena Ferrante

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Last September, during a sultry late-summer lunch hour in Manhattan, I had a street encounter that very nearly moved me to tears. I was crossing...

21.092015November 12, 2019
The Unbearable (White) Maleness of US Poetry: And How We Can Enable a Structural Response to Literary Yellowface and Gender Inequity in Publishing

The Unbearable (White) Maleness of US Poetry: And How We Can Enable a Structural Response to Literary Yellowface and Gender Inequity in Publishing

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On Labor Day, news broke widely that White writer Michael Derrick Hudson’s poem “The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve” is...

07.102014September 10, 2019
Required Reading

Required Reading

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This year, Girls Write Now is counting. A mentorship program that pairs established writers with teenage girls from underprivileged areas and underserved schools in New...

01.102014September 10, 2019
Some Questions About Empathy and Reading

Some Questions About Empathy and Reading

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First Questions: The Limits of Empathy I taught two creative writing courses as a graduate student. My undergraduates wanted answers and rules, and instead I...