The Heart-Work: Writing About Trauma as a Subversive Act

An essay by memoirist Melissa Febos in which she responds to her Sarah Lawrence students’ fears around writing about their traumas, and concerns about being accused of “navel gazing.” She rejects the notion that there are already too many stories about trauma and personal experiences out there–along with other notions about memoir as narcissistic, arguments she believes are designed to silence women. “It is not gauche to write about trauma,” she writes. “It is subversive.”

Source: Poets & Writers
Published: Jan 23, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,688 words)

Where “It” Was: Rereading Stephen King’s “It” on Its 30th Anniversary

Was It really about a murderous clown, or was it about our ability to forget the horrors of the past?

Published: Sep 11, 2016
Length: 10 minutes (2,551 words)

America Is Still the Future

Sullivan reflects back on his time as a foreigner in the U.S. and how he learned to embrace the country’s flaws and virtues during his journey of becoming a citizen.

Published: Jan 22, 2017
Length: 29 minutes (7,461 words)

To Obama With Love, and Hate, and Desperation

Jeanne Marie Laskas goes behind the scenes in the Whitehouse mailroom where it took “50 staff members, 36 interns, and a rotating roster of 300 volunteers” to read and process the 10,000 messages and letters President Barack Obama received each day during his eight-year presidency. Of the 10,000 pieces of correspondence, staffers were charged with choosing the ten letters that Obama read each day.

Published: Jan 17, 2017
Length: 36 minutes (9,178 words)

The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence

A deep look into the career and voting record of Vice President Mike Pence during his time in Indiana government.

Source: Rolling Stone
Published: Jan 23, 2017
Length: 26 minutes (6,556 words)

How the Town of Whitefish Defeated Its Neo-Nazi Trolls — And Became a National Model of Resistance

When resident neo-Nazi Richard Spencer and his fellow white supremacists started trying to intimidate the people of Whitefish, Montana about their support of Jewish businesses and neighbors, citizens took to the streets, protesting, throwing a block party and coming together to let the world know: this tiny town will not let racists dictate how people live here, and threats or not, Whitefish won’t back down.

Source: Yahoo News
Published: Jan 19, 2017
Length: 19 minutes (4,823 words)

Paul Auster: ‘I’m Going to Speak Out as Often as I Can, Otherwise I Can’t Live with Myself’

The publication of 4321, Paul Auster’s new 900-page novel, coincides with the author’s seventieth birthday. In an interview at the Guardian, he talks about escaping death as a child, writing a story about the what-ifs that haunt us, and learning how to live his life in the years ahead under a Trump presidency.

Author: Paul Laity
Source: The Guardian
Published: Jan 20, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,543 words)

When the National Bird Is a Burden

The bald eagle has long been a symbol of pride and freedom in the United States. But for one family farm in Georgia, it’s a real nuisance.

Published: Jan 19, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,603 words)

In 1971, the People Didn’t Just March on Washington — They Shut It Down

The most influential large-scale political action of the ’60s was actually in 1971, and you’ve never heard of it. It was called the Mayday action, and it provides invaluable lessons for today.

Source: Verso Books
Published: Jan 20, 2017
Length: 35 minutes (8,883 words)

Who Decides Who Counts as Native American?

Brooke Jarvis chronicles the legal battle over the “Nooksack 306,” members of the tribe who were disenrolled over questions about their identity.

Published: Jan 18, 2017
Length: 29 minutes (7,340 words)