Category: Books & Reading
Everything’s Coming Up Springtime
The vernal equinox approaches. Time to step into the light! SECULAR SPIRITUALITY: Author Bart Everson will participate in a discussion with the theme “Can we derive a secular spirituality from the seasons?” from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 17, at the Jefferson Parish Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie. The discussion will be moderated […]
Read More → Everything’s Coming Up SpringtimeTwo Radio Spots
I recently made a trip to Indiana, as is my wont in the summertime. While I’m up there I always try to stir up some trouble. Some of my attempts are more successful than others. International Flag-Burning Day was a bust, for example. But there is evidence that some of my other provocations were more […]
Read More → Two Radio SpotsReturn to Mago
I’m honored to have work featured in Return to Mago. It’s an online magazine dedicated to “the Primordial Knowing originating from the Great Goddess, Mago.” Here’s more about the Magoism mission: Our vision and intention is to advocate for feminist and spiritually-based activism and to promote creative and scholarly work that supports the awareness of the oneness of […]
Read More → Return to MagoBook of the Year
I’m flattered and flabbergasted to see that Godless Paganism has been named as “Book of the Year” by the ever-insightful Megan Manson. I’m proud to have two essays in this collection, which was edited by John Halstead and features a ton of writing by many folks more talented and expressive than I could ever hope […]
Read More → Book of the YearReviews Pour In
“Pour” is not really the right verb, but it sounds so much more impressive than “Reviews trickle in.” Whatever the volume, I’m happy to report that Spinning in Place has garnered some reviews. Astonishingly enough, they are (mostly) from people I don’t even know. Even more astonishing, so far they are all very positive. Here […]
Read More → Reviews Pour InBooks Books Books
Suddenly my personal bibliography has quadrupled. I’m honored to have essays in two new collections. As if that’s not enough, I’m also thrilled to announce the publication of my own book at long last. Finding the Masculine in Goddess’ Spiral, edited by Erick DuPree, came out from Megalithica Books in February. Godless Paganism, edited by […]
Read More → Books Books BooksPlease Forward
I know I shouldn’t be excited about something so grim but nevertheless I am happy to announce that Please Forward will soon be available in bookstores (officially on August 15) and is now available for pre-order at all the usual places, including my favorite bookstore. This anthology collects online writings that erupted in the aftermath of […]
Read More → Please ForwardRed Rock Review
I’m holding in my hot little hands the Spring 2015 issue (#35) of the Red Rock Review, a literary journal from the College of Southern Nevada. Red Rock Review is notable for publishing such luminaries as Marge Piercy and now yours truly. Check it out, page 71, “Dreams,” a short piece of what might be […]
Read More → Red Rock ReviewOWNing LCMS
I wanted to know more about the historical context of the faith in which I was raised. So I got hold of A History of Lutheranism by Eric W. Gritsch. It offered a bit more detail than I needed, so that I ended up skimming large sections, but nonetheless I found it a fascinating volume, […]
Read More → OWNing LCMSThree Short Essays
I recently read Toby Tyrrell’s new book, On Gaia, which provoked me to write three short essays. The first is a review of the book, and the subsequent two are further ruminations inspired by this reading. Gaia Is Dead Long Live Gaia The Name of Gaia I feel well out of my depth here and […]
Read More → Three Short EssaysEpistle to the Ecotopians
I don’t often do this, but here are some words written by someone else. I guess I should add a few words of my own. I read Ecotopia in the late 80s. Written by Ernest Callenbach, it’s an imaginative novel that speculates on what would happen if the west coast of the United States seceded […]
Read More → Epistle to the EcotopiansContext Clues
What’s in an Acronym I work at an HBCU. That acronym is not recognized by my spellchecker, nor was it in my vocabulary until I came to work here. It stands for “Historically Black College or University,” a term which requires even more unpacking. In a nutshell, the story is this. Once upon a time […]
Read More → Context CluesAbsalom, Absalom!
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner My rating: 5 of 5 stars It took me a good long while, but I finally finished a book by William Faulkner. I’d read a few pages from The Sound and the Fury a few decades ago, gave up, and avoided him like pellagra ever since. It took me almost […]
Read More → Absalom, Absalom!Deleuzional
Choice quote from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on Gilles Deleuze: Overlooking many important nuances, we can say that Deleuze’s basic notion is that in all realms of being intensive morphogenetic processes follow differential virtual multiplicities to produce localized and individuated actual substances with extensive properties. Simply put, the actualization of the virtual proceeds […]
Read More → DeleuzionalThird Chimpanzee
What with all the bedrest I’ve been catching up on my reading. The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution & Future of the Human Animal by Jared Diamond My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first became aware of Jared Diamond while having lunch in Tampere in the summer of 2001. I was there in Finland for […]
Read More → Third ChimpanzeeMidnight Robber
Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I like science fiction. I like Caribbean cultures. But I’ve never looked for the intersection of the two. Actually, now I think about it, I have encountered lots of science fictional themes in reggae lyrics. But certainly I never thought to look for a […]
Read More → Midnight RobberReading Frenzy
I seem to be reading more these days. I’m a slow reader, but nevertheless I persevere. I’m simultaneously working my way through no less than four books right now. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. I’m reading this for the aptly-named Difficult Book Club, which was formed here at the University as part of our Read […]
Read More → Reading FrenzyPersephomania
Item #1: According to Editorial Anonymous (a blog of a children’s book editor): Trend Watch: Persephone Is the New Zombies/Vampires Well, I certainly wouldn’t have predicted this one. We’re seeing a lot of YA Persephone retellings. Maybe this is in part due to the greek myth renaissance effected by Mr. Riordan? I don’t know. Maybe […]
Read More → PersephomaniaDon’t Fear the Epigraph
Throughout my childhood my family made regular visits to my grandfather’s place, a doublewide trailer at the dead end of a long rural road, secluded acreage at the edge of Pottawatomi State Park in scenic Door County, Wisconsin. On one visit, I excavated (from a drawer in a nightstand in a guest bedroom) a remaindered […]
Read More → Don’t Fear the EpigraphWe’re Number 15
My friend Anne, with whom I’ve been in a book club for nearly ten years now, alerted me to the fact that Central Connecticut State University has released their annual rankings of America’s Most Literate Cities. What especially intrigued Anne, and me, is that New Orleans is ranked #15 (out of 75). We were #17 […]
Read More → We’re Number 15