Vanishing into the Work: The Franciscan Labors of James Munce
By Essay Issue 54
I think that I am primarily a storyteller. My function as a visual artist is to create a two-dimensional formal structure that will best contain the story being told. I am always trying to create a sense of space that has somehow been altered or transformed by an event. —James Munce THE LACONIC, SPARTAN PROSE above…
Read MorePrayer with Rotohammer
By Poetry Issue 86
Retrofitting Grace Cathedral, San Francisco Let my worship be this work and the force of each bit-strike on masonry. Forswear my doubtful tongue. Let my past words be what they are: failed elegies to the living word. Let praise be pain rejoicing. What rose like dust now falls and it is beautiful and meaningless and…
Read MoreWeb Exclusive: A Conversation with Pinckney Benedict
By Interview Issue 57
Our spring 2008 issue includes a new story by the weird and wonderful Pinckney Benedict. This month we virtually sat down with Pinckney to ask him about where he gets his ideas, how he manages them, and what his dog means to him. Image: You have a novel titled Dogs of God, and in…
Read MoreOliver Barratt: Poetry of the Void
By Essay Issue 57
THE PHERICHE CLINIC clings to a windswept, rocky plateau two day’s hike below Everest Base Camp. Dwarfed by the majestic Himalayan peaks that surround it, this collection of low stone buildings is the highest medical clinic in the world, offering climbers and those who live there the care and expert treatment that are essential in…
Read MoreJapanese Wall Hanging
By Poetry Issue 59
The brush might absorb too much water. Not enough. His stroke could be too heavy or hesitant. The ink could blot. Refuse to spread. Spread in the wrong direction. The Japanese brush painter has trained for years to face this moment. On his knees, leaning back on his heels, today he pictures the heron, come…
Read MoreMy Nineveh
By Poetry Issue 57
Reel rolling from the spliced-together lot of my past, this time around: senior year of high school, singsong voiceover of girls bowing to whatever she said, Yes, Sister/ No, Sister as still shots are superimposed on our faces: lone crow on a fencepost, cow silhouetted against late afternoon. Byron, Keats, Shelley—lining up to wander line…
Read MoreMaking It Strange
By Essay Issue 61
The following four short sermons were delivered at the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, between July 28 and August 2, 2008. All Manner of Travesties: Genesis 4:1-17 The hazards of the creative act are the loam out of which true form emerges. There is no way of achieving true form without opening…
Read MoreA Reflection in the Window: Gerhard Richter Longs for More
By Essay Issue 64
A painting can help us to think something that goes beyond this senseless existence. That’s something art can do. —Gerhard Richter, Doubt and Belief GERHARD RICHTER wants you to believe. Maybe not in God per se, but in something. The significance of his work depends on it. His paintings invite us to identify…
Read MoreA Private Letter
By Essay Issue 63
A Private Letter A Poet on Writing for Composers NOT LONG AGO, I was giving a reading with another poet who has written libretti for composers. I hadn’t heard anything of his musical collaborations for a few years, and asked him if he was still working in the opera world. “I’m doing something for television,”…
Read MoreA Conversation with Tim Gautreaux
By Interview Issue 63
Tim Gautreaux was born in Morgan City, Louisiana, in 1947. He attended Nicholls State University and the University of South Carolina, where he earned a PhD in English literature. In 1972 he began teaching creative writing at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he directed the creative writing program until his retirement in 2003. His books…
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