Shanghai, 2007: Fourteen-year-old Alva was born and raised in China by her American expat mother. Her hopes of moving to America are dashed when her mother becomes engaged to Lu Fang, their Chinese landlord, whose own dreams were curtailed…
The Truth About Horses, Christy Cashman’s debut novel, is a wonderful mix of psychological and equestrian drama, with enough magical realism to keep you off balance. Fourteen-year-old Reese’s dream of winning a big race is shattered when her horse, Trusted…
I’ve always tried hard to make things happen for myself. As a writer, I enter contests, apply for fellowships and residencies, and submit to journals. I seek out feedback wherever I can get it. I take writing classes, attend conferences,…
In Rebecca Traister’s newest tour de force, Good and Mad (Simon & Schuster, 2018), she shares a memory from an early job in a male-dominated office where she found herself weeping in inexpressible rage. A female colleague dragged her into…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a wonderful review will make little impression on an artist whereas a bad review will be seared onto said artist’s brain and heart. Like a terrible tattoo, a negative review is impossible to…
I wanted to see the movie, Genius, because it was about Maxwell Perkins, the famed editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. But it is really about Perkins’ relationship with Thomas Wolfe, who I’m embarrassed to say, I had…