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A Final Conversation

I used bravado to protect myself when we lived in poverty.

A Letter to Robert Pinsky

We caress the rough. Sensuous, delectable, and yet sorrowful.

A Pandemonium of Want

Widow. I look up the etymology. To separate, split, cleave, divide.

A Trailer by the River

The thought of entertaining our relatives filled me with horror.

A Word, Please

Advice for a Young Painter

Identify where you came from, where you are, and where you wish to go.

All-American Poem

You can go from one town square to another and never fall in love.

Ann Beattie

Ann Beattie and Carol Edgarian in Conversation

Since I was little I was always wondering, What makes people tick?

Babylon Sister

Ah, yes, Rita reminded herself: I won. Her Mistress of Mayhem award.

Best Advice

Always know the creative life begins again and again.

Best of Sex Writing

I am always hungry & wanting to have sex. This is a fact.

Beyond the Glass Ceiling There’s Sky

If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

Books

It is natural that the novelist should doubt his ability to cope with his task.

Borderlines, Real and Imaginary: Elizabeth Spencer’s “The Runaways”

The story is filled with demarcations, limits, invisible as well as overt.

Carried Away

I’m a theatrical lyricist. I would never choose to look fat in public.

Cartoon Art Volume 2022-01

Clips from Our Interview with Frank

Frank Conroy

Clips from Our Interview with Jennifer Egan

Audio clips of Pultizer Prize winner Jennifer Egan on her work.

Dante on Broadway

How many times had I passed it in a taxicab or walked within sight of it?

Downhill Triolets

Ring, ring, ring at 2 a.m. means meth’s got my brother in the slammer again.

Elements of Style

The rich man adorns himself and the elegant man gets dressed.

For the Love of the Game

Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

Fort Pierce, Florida

“You look like you’re about to fall over,” he says. “Are you all right?”

From A to Z

Youth! Goodness! Joy! Hope! Strange things to bring to a place like this.

Go Humbly

What right does an American mutt like me have to depict in fiction the lives of a Salvadoran family?

Gossip

Her knees seemed about to give way, and he quickly grabbed her elbow.

Holy Defense and Other Poems

We were assigned straight to the lion’s muzzle, the Sardasht front.

How I Feel about You

It was more fun to get drunk with a friend than with a lover.

In London Town

Part of my desire to be in London related to its writers.