beatriz

I’ve spoken with one of my favorite professors about this. He cautions heavily against placing the pressure of publication on your first novel. He says that in any other career, we wouldn’t expect our first attempt to be worthy of anything—recognition, publication, etc. Think of most musician’s first songs, most painter’s first paintings, or most... See more

Childlessness, fertili ty and infertility still defines women and their achievements In Britain -whether after higher education in 1913, as a Cabinet Minister in the 1960s or to be Prime Minister in 2016. Researching eugenics and its co nsequences, including enforced sterilisati on, shortly after I found that I was infertile made me vividly... See more

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

The UN predicted sixty years based on current rates of soil degradation in certain, extreme cases of agro-erosion. Most worst-case scenarios see a thousand-year finishing line.

The Underworld is the place where you broke bread with Baba Yaga, made peace with limit, were fed small scraps of meat by crows when you needed it the most. It’s the deep dip in a myth, the katabasis , the descent, the mischievous, startling bewilderment of irrational energies. Logic has little traction at such a moment. Successful returnees of the... See more

he most reactionary horror movies of the past few years (read: longlegs and the substance )

An ‘epistemic bubble’ is an informational network from which relevant voices have been excluded by omission . That omission might be purposeful: we might be selectively avoiding contact with contrary views because, say, they make us uncomfortable. As social scientists tell us, we like to engage in selective exposure, seeking out information that... See more

A family who can’t communicate, a telephone call, a litany of bird-related meals. That particular story was called “Talking Fowl with my Father.”

About two years ago, following a persistent hunch, I visited a local forest for 101 days, primarily to listen. An extended vigil. I sat by a hazel bush in the rain and the coming dark and did little. I would offer a gift then quieten down and try and catch the mood of the day. It proved to be the most exacting, even eviscerating, of experiences.