Why I've been writing criticism

I know now I was grieving something , the death of an ambition. I started attending reading events at Green Apple Books, my local bookstore, because it was something I liked in grad school, and I had to get myself out of the house. Going to those events was (is) a way of traveling without moving; they have afforded me an incredibly valuable educati... See more

On a rainy Saturday morning, some twenty writers, published and aspiring, piled into one of the bookstores for a workshop called “Texts and Betrayal: Secrets and Boundaries.” The session was led by Irena Klepfisz, a poet, essayist, and child survivor of the Holocaust whose work I’ve long admired. After brief introductions, she led the group through... See more