Why would a tenure-track professor find himself selling his plasma to make rent? A story about debt in the academic world.
money
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
A Shot in the Arm
Why would a tenure-track professor find himself selling his plasma to make rent? A story about debt in the academic world.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Porochista Khakpour on Starving as a Young Novelist
Lit Hub has a compelling essay by “The Last Illusion” author Porochista Khakpour about her struggle to survive early in her career as a novelist.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Portrait of the Artist as a Debut Novelist
An essay by Iranian-American novelist Porochista Khakpour (excerpted from Scratch: Writers, Money and the Art of Making a Living, edited by Manjula Martin) about the challenges of surviving financially in her early years as a writer. Her struggle was compounded by being a writer of color with an unusual name, from a country whose president […]
Posted inNonfiction, Story
‘Exposure Is Bullshit’: Who Should Get Paid for Live Storytelling Events?
The thin margins of the IRL economy.
Posted inNonfiction
Borges and $: The Parable of the Literary Master and the Coin
Thirty years ago, the world lost a great literary mind—the Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. Today, Elizabeth Hyde Stevens revisits the financial conditions that produced this life of pure literature, finding unexpected hope in the darkest period of Borges’ forgotten past.
Posted inBlog Post, Discussions, Uncategorized
Could You Afford a $400 Emergency? Neal Gabler Says His Financial Confession ‘Was Not an Easy One to Write’
If there are two things Americans are good at, it’s mishandling our finances, and using Twitter to judge those who are in worse shape than us. Thus we have the perfect Atlantic cover story this week—a refreshingly honest and desparingly relatable personal essay by writer Neal Gabler about his many financial mistakes, as well as […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
‘America’s Best Investment Ever,’ According to ‘Bowling Alone’ Author Robert Putnam
America’s best investment ever, in the whole history of our country, was to invest in the public high school and secondary school at the beginning of the 20th century. It dramatically raised the growth rate of America because it was a huge investment in human capital. The best economic analyses now say that investment in the […]
Posted inBooks, Member Pick, Nonfiction, Story
This Is Living
How burdens and values pass from fathers to sons, and the search for that one true thing.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Old Music Industry: ‘A System Specifically Engineered to Waste the Band’s Money’
During the 90s there was something of an arms race to see who could write the biggest deal. That is, the deal with the most money being spent on the band’s behalf. In a singularly painless contest the money would either be paid to the band as a royalty, which would take that money out […]