I Loved Milan Kundera in Part Because His Pain was Familiar (Column)
By Leah Eichler, Milan Kundera died this week at age 94 and the free flow of obituaries reminded me of how enamoured I was with dissident writers when I was young. Other girls had Judd Nelson, I had Solzhenitsyn. There was something about the bad boy writer that really appealed to me. Dark, brooding, artistic, […]
The Lottery Taught Us That the World Can Be a Scary Place (Column)
By Leah Eichler, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery first appeared in print in The New Yorker in the June 26, 1948 issue and according to legend, generated more letters to the editor than the magazine had ever experienced before (and possibly, since.) The Lottery is arguably the most widely known work of short fiction in American […]
The Titan and the Audacity of an Instagrammable Life (Column)
By Leah Eichler, It’s been almost a week since the wreckage from the Titan, the doomed submersible bent on giving its wealthy passengers a close-up view of the Titanic, was found, confirming that all five on board were dead. Since then, many of us have lamented the loss of life as well as the waste […]
What Would Jane Do? My Sister Talks to Dogs — A Lot
Dear Jane, My sister finds something wrong with everything, complaining constantly. She also expects me to visit her at home and tolerate her dogs barking at me. She never goes anywhere without her dogs and talks to them in a high-pitched whine. She is angry with me approximately half the time. I recommend to her that […]
The Village at the End of the World (Column)
By Leah Eichler, I just finished the searing book of short stories by Mikołaj Grynberg called “I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To.” The short stories are unusual since they are all told in first person in short vignettes. The author is also a photographer, and the stories come […]
Buffalo Gals
By Rita Jane Gabbett, In 1962, we lived in the country and my mom didn’t drive, which made for precious few shots at community service. So, when the town asked us to play a key role in preparations for our town’s 125th anniversary celebration, my dad answered the call. I’m not sure he truly thought […]
What Would Jane Austen Do? (Advice)
Dear Jane, I’m planning a trip with my significant other and we have very different travel styles. I love to relax and take it slow, while my partner wants to see and do as much as possible. How can we compromise and plan a trip that accommodates both of our preferences? Sincerely, Tired of the […]
The Radiant Body
By Oksana Marafioti, (An excerpt from “All Of Us Fragile And Brave”) Lina and I boarded our bus in Prague and arrived in Brno, where later that afternoon, I was scheduled to read from my book at the Brno Museum of Romani Culture. Lina, as my book translator, would be reading in Czech. Before this […]
Storage Space
By Heidi Fisher, My parents’ house is bigger than mine. It is cleaner, better organized, certainly quieter. Retired, my mom has no shortage of time to sort, tidy, and redecorate, which results in me being dragged upstairs to an extra closet to reclaim old prom dresses, to the garage to receive packets of seeds and […]
Al Gofa Interview: Transcending Genres
By Jean Marc Ah-Sen. Montreal-based comics artist Al Gofa has built a career testing out creative ways to mix genres. In his debut graphic novel Chevalier Bataille (Knight Battle,) Gofa reworked key elements of the war story until it aligned with the structure of the quest narrative. His follow-up Dark Angels of Darkness featured gladiatorial […]