The 49ers and Divine Intervention
By Bruce Farrell Rosen, My mom, who passed away from cancer in 1999, was a gifted psychic. She never wanted notoriety or fame, she just wanted to read cups to support our family after my dad left the home in our teenage years. But because she was so gifted, so talented, she developed quite a […]
Pomelos
By Ellis Shuman, The war had been raging for 40 days when Eli reported to the orchards. Seven in the morning and he was the first one. The only one. Was he in the right place? Was he in his right mind to have driven an hour and a half from his relatively safe home […]
How to Triumph with Only One Shoe
By N.L. Jorgensen, I’m a piano geek. Book nerd. Medieval music freak. I never dreamed I’d spend a week in Eugene, Oregon, at the Olympic track and field trials. But here I am. It’s Monday, June, 21, 2021, and in a few days, my daughter will compete in the 10,000 meters. Right now, I’m absorbed […]
Should You Kickstart Your Non-Fiction Book Project?
Howard Lovy has been many things: a journalist, covering everything from Judaism to science and technology, a podcaster, a feature writer for Publishers Weekly, a book editor, a memoirist. The list goes on. But right now he says that the most important thing to know about him is that, as a child and grandchild of […]
Author Darren McKee on AI and the Future of Writing
In the new and scary world of “superintelligence,” Darren McKee tells writers to view AI “like a calculator,” but advises us to be transparent about our usage. McKee is the author of the new book, “Uncontrollable: The Threat of Artificial Superintelligence and The Race to Save the World.” In the interview, he breaks down what […]
JFK: Remembering the Man not the Assassination
(The author, shown above, in the months after JFK’s assassination.) By Bruce Farrell Rosen, The recently passed date of November 22 marked the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. For many of us of a certain age, the memory of hearing that news is etched into our brains like grooves in […]
The End of Days
By Rowan Keller Smith, The End Days kicked off like any other, with a walk to work. Headphones in, NPR on. The story of a dying toddler, and her mother and her father and her brother. One after another their lungs gave out. A silent prayer for all of them, the thought “God, that’s awful.” […]
Want to Publish an Op-Ed? Here’s How!
Scott Colby, the op-ed editor at The Toronto Star and the author of “That’s What You Think: A Practical Guide to Writing Op-Eds and Short Memoirs.” In this interview we talk about what makes a compelling op-ed, how to pitch and what to do if you get rejected. Listen in!
In Yorktown, Her Name Is Sharon
By Brian Mosher, There are things you expect when you step inside a whorehouse or a brothel. Or, as Helene liked to call her place, a House of Entertainment. You expect women, obviously. Whisky and gin. You expect to leave with less money than you came in with. And, of course, you expect to have […]
An Unwelcome Guest
By Jonathan Papernick, (NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I wrote the short story “An Unwelcome Guest,” exactly 25 years ago in October 1998, during my first semester of graduate school. It was my attempt to encapsulate the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its horrifying spiral of violence in one short story. I had spent a year in […]