Though born and raised in the United States, I recently found myself asking whether I'm an American writer. I concluded that, based on my approach to fiction and despite having been born here, I am absolutely not an American writer. American writers, with few exceptions, believe you need to get to the point. I'm not…
I seem to have always been drawn to fiction you might say is "out there." This seems to have had an influence on the way I write my own fiction. I can't point to any particular approach or technique I've adopted from the authors I admire (beyond the typically derivative affectations common to most beginning…
For me, wisdom does not seem to be growing hand-in-hand with age. Indeed, the opposite seems true: with every passing year, I seem to know less about the world--and my presumed place in it.
But how can I be sure of anything in the state in which I find myself? I feel as if extracted from someone else's dream, as if I--the would-be poet--were nothing more than a failed verse written in crabbed script, left adrift in the wake of a passing train, skimming the platform of a deserted…
There are a number of recorded versions of "Roadrunner" by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, but this extended live version released as a single on Berserkly is the one that really does it for me. Richman takes the listener on a long ride around the highways of Massachusetts "late at night when it's cold…
