-
On Percival Everett’s The Trees (a 199-word review)
Clearly, Percival Everett’s longtime publisher, Graywolf Press, couldn’t quite figure out how to characterize his new novel, The Trees. On the back cover: “A blistering tale of revenge in the Deep South.” “Blistering,” a hype word from 1950s B-movie trailers. “Revenge,” yes! But: “In the Deep South”—well, the novel only begins there with gruesome murders and mutilations of white racists in Money, Mississippi, where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955. Yes, it’s all connected. But Money can’t contain the spirit of retribution fueled by American history. The real history, not the one we learned in school.Read More
-
A Poem for the First Anniversary of the Insurrection
SHIP OF STATE A while back I got tired of worrying about you now, I’m serious, I long to take care of you. —Horace, Odes I:XIV The Ship of State’s been listing since Brits torched the old White House. Who’d think it now, considering our marble Capitol massive as Giza or the Taj Mahal.Read More
-
Columbus, Cabrini, Indigenous Peoples, and Me
I meant to post this link to my book Marked Men on Indigenous Peoples Day since my book aims to honor Silas Soule, a soldier who defied orders and refused to let his men participate in the Sand Creek Massacre. I got distracted from posting when I discovered that here in Colorado, Columbus Day, which Indigenous Peoples Day was meant to replace, had been co-opted by yet another replacement holiday: Mother Cabrini Day.Read More
-
#crushthecockroach
-
“The Greatest Liar in the World” (Flash Fiction by Etgar Keret)
In the wake of President Bonespur’s stint as a Mussolini-esque weatherman, Keret (as translated by Jessica Cohen) offers an especially resonant reading experience. Here’s one exemplary excerpt: [H]is mouth is a bona fide cosmic phenomenon, a black hole that sucks in reality and spits it out the other end as something completely different.Read More
-
Concentration Camps for Brown Kids
The linked post below is 95% factual (a few acerbic asides never hurt a grounded argument) and followed, in the comments, by a list of linked sources. By the way, here is the American Heritage Dictionary definition of “concentration camp”: “A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable.” Clearly, this definition–like all similar definitions in all dictionaries–applies to the camps in question.Read More
-
Peter O’Toole on a Camel!
Don’t miss one of the great big-screen epic films, Lawrence of Arabia! Uncut, of course, with a welcome intermission built into the middle and a lively discussion afterward. This is Part of the Arvada Center’s series of events on America in the First World War.Read More
-
Democracy, or The Arc of Evolution Bends Toward Consciousness
An uplifting message, badly needed in our current situation….Read More
-
GOP Hammers Charitable Giving
This just in from Americans for the Arts… What’s Happening with Tax Reform Today, the U.S. House voted along party-lines to pass their tax reform bill (H.R. 1) by a vote of 227-205. The bill contains a number of provisions harmful to charitable organizations and the arts: Overwhelming majority of taxpayers would no longer have access to make tax-deductible charitable contributions. That charitable tax deduction would be limited to the wealthiest 5% of taxpayers. Entertainment, amusement, recreation and membership dues expenses related to a business purpose or meeting would be repealed.Read More
-
The Statistical Minority
Josef Škvorecký, the great Czech novelist, author of The Engineer of Human Souls (beautifully translated by Paul Wilson) and other meditations on in the spiritual/intellectual havoc inflicted by totalitarians, writes this about the the rise and fall of the Prague Spring: The statistical majority struggles only for more bread; the statistical minority struggles too, for more non-bread.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
