Esperaba que alguna vez. Nada puede durar tanto, no existe ningún recuerdo por intenso que sea que no se apague. I woke up alone in Puerto Vallarta. My mouth dry. My body sore. My senses numb. I heard the waves crashing against the rocks and receding back into the depths, and I desired nothing more than to become part of the backwash, letting it … Read More The Search for Nothing Amidst Everything
+ A Worn Path, dry september, ernest j gaines, eudora welty, southern, southern literature, the sky is gray, william faulkner
As I was organizing my American literature survey course this semester, I knew that I wanted to center it on short stories. I did this because I wanted to provide students with a broad swath of literature and literary movements from 1865 to the present. With this in mind, I knew, as well, that I wanted to include Ernest Gaines’ “The Sky is Gray,” because, like … Read More Nothing Happens in Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path”
We know the power of education. We know of its power to expand one’s worldview and to teach students how to become members of a collective society. However, we also know about the controlling nature of education, the way it becomes an extension of those in power and used as a means of control, to gain and maintain power over a populace. Nazi Germany … Read More The Role of Education in Indoctrination in Anna Seghers’ “A Man Becomes a Nazi”
+ creative writing, short story, south, southern, southern gothic, southern literature, writing, zombies
If you’ve been reading me for a while, you know that while I typically write essays, I occasionally write short stories. I’ve published “Paper,” “Adieu,” and “This Story is Continuing to Develop” here over the past few years. Today, I want to share another story that I wrote back in 2020. I’m not, really, a huge horror fan, but someone asked me to write … Read More “I’ve always done what is right”
All of us, no matter how hard we try, succumb to preconceived stereotypes and the construction of others who may disagree with us enemies. Salman Rushdie discusses this extensively in his memoir Knife as he writes about his stabbing in August 2022 at the Chautauqua Institute. During a fictionalized interview with his would be assassin, Rushdie tells the man, “I know that it is possible to … Read More The Construction of Enemies in Ron Rash’s “Return”
Interminable Rambling 