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In the Dream House
Machado’s writing is clever, poetic at times, and sharp when it needs to be. The structure of her memoir in very short chapters is the perfect vehicle to tell both a personal tale and dissect the mechanism inherent in the abuse of women (by women.) How does a victim let it happen?
School Visit: Siem Reap, Cambodia
What better way to celebrate World Book Day than at the International School in Siem Reap, where the teachers and students spent their afternoon playing literary quizzes and performed silent plays based on Grimm fairytales?
The Truth About Knowing
Femke knows it’s not sex. They’re still enjoying each other’s bodies, and he never smells of anything but himself. She trusts her nose, her hunter’s sense. It’s not sex.
What You Have Heard Is True
What You Have Heard Is True by Carolyne Forché is one of these books everyone should read. Even if you normally don’t read memoirs. Even if you’re not that interested in repression and resistance. I chose this book because I’d…
Of Lace and Limitations
Outside the Rembrandt café was a tramp, a woman with the haunted look of the long-term unlucky. She was wrapped in layers of flannel and wool and sat hunched on the stoop, smoking a cigarette, blowing her breath against her…
Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta
We swam, we drank coconuts, we read, we wrote. And after a week of beach, we moved to Koh Lanta Old Town, a place that used to be the island’s main port and trading hub, and is now a laid-back…
Guidelines for Non-Americans on Writing a Classic American Story
Put a character in a house with a porch and a yard, and call the place old, even though less than two centuries weigh it down. A picket fence is useful, along with a crabapple tree. Mention alcohol abuse or…
