Women We Read This Week
Soniah Kamal’s “The Reluctant Writer” in Catapult At 14, Sonia Kamal, like many girls her age, was inspired by a woman on television and…
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I Am Evghenia, First on Mars: An Interview
Her name echoes Eve, the first woman of one enduring creation story. She herself—a farm kid from somewhere near the Russia-Kazakhstan border—is the first person on Mars, as followers of the Twitter account “Evghenia Is on Mars” have been told, 140 characters of patchy English at a time.
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The First Person on Mars
Somewhere near Kazakhstan, the 1980s: At nighttime, surrounded by goats, a little girl lay on her back in a pasture and pointed a small telescope toward the stars.
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Women We Read This Week
Molly Brodak’s “Bandit” in Granta Molly Brodak tells the story of her father, a gambler and bank robber who was an enigmatic, pervasive presence…
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Women We Read This Week
Jill Talbot’s “A Brief History” on The Nervous Breakdown I first became aware of Jill Talbot through her fascinating essay in DIAGRAM called “The…
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The Sign for This
It’s said that in the old deaf boarding schools, the ones that didn’t allow Sign, the students would wait deep into the night for their moment, feigning their dreams…
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Women We Read This Week
Anna Whiston-Donaldson on a son’s death; Michelle Herman on her father’s death; Ann Bauer on adjuncting; Heather Havrilesky on prayer.
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Not Travel Writing
Last week in Mumbai, trying to recover from some respiratory bug that is clinging like scale to my throat and lungs, I stared at the brick walls of my room, and listened to the barks and yells and mumbles from the street against a background of near-constant honking horns.
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Our Own Ocean
During the longer days of our cross-country road trip I slept in the car in the early afternoon, dozing in the passenger seat as Cam’s Toyota…
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Women We Read This Week
Donna Seaman’s “Turning out the lights just isn’t going to do it” in Creative Nonfiction In the movie Bang the Drum Slowly, there’s a…
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Vela Writers On: Money
I remember years ago – five years ago, to be precise – after I’d decided not to take another teaching job, I announced to my…
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Women We Read This Week
Maria Konnikova’s “An Antidote for Mindlessness” on The New Yorker’s Science and Tech “Elements” blog If you practice yoga and meditation, you know the…
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