Essays

HOW FANTASY LITERATURE AND MEDIA CAN BENEFIT OUR MENTAL HEALTH
, June 21, 2023

We all have that feeling sometimes where we channel hop or we pick up a book, read the blurb, put it down, pick up another book…


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A YEAR IN ART: AUSTRALIA 1992
, June 21, 2023

Tate Modern’s A Year in Art: Australia 1992 exhibition, spotlights the trauma of post-colonial Australia and its continued influence today.


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THE VITAL HEART OF THE FLASH FICTION STORY
, June 21, 2023

Pulled off, flash fiction is an acrobatic feat, leaving an arc on the air and a gasp in the audience.


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NOVELS ABOUT TOKYO
, June 20, 2023

I have a feeling that the novel I’m planning to write this year will be the last in the Yamanote Line series.


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A GIVE AND TAKE OF TECH IN ART AND ENTERTAINMENT
, June 15, 2023

The role of technology in art is a complicated balancing act, where every medium comes with its own challenges to be addressed, accepted, or denied.


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YEAR OF THE PRINCE
, December 9, 2022

It is the most shattering experience of a young man’s life when he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself: [He puts…


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THE HERRERA-HARFUCH ART COLLECTION
, December 8, 2022

Every time I visit the Herrera-Harfuch art collection, every time I’ve gone up – because there is an ascent, never as dangerous…


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THE ENDURING APPEAL OF THE MYSTERY STORY
, December 8, 2022

The critic Tzvetan Todorov once suggested that the trick to writing a successful detective story was being sure not to innovate. The great genre…


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YEAR OF THE PRINCE
, December 8, 2022

BEN CRYSTAL SHARES EXCLUSIVE FRAGMENTS FROM HIS REHEARSAL DIARIES ON PLAYING HAMLET, AND CONSIDERS WHERE SHAKESPEARE MIGHT BE HEADED NEXT… It is…


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MICRO-NARRATIVES OF THE EVERYDAY
, December 8, 2022

“Where do novels come from?” Or “Who invented the novel?” Or “What was the first novel?” Or even, “Why did Shakespeare write…


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THREE YEARS IN ARKANSAS
, December 8, 2022

Three years ago: I came into Fayetteville, Arkansas, riding in an old Ford, sleep-deprived, sipping whiskey from a coffee mug. I’d found…


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LAND OF FIRE AND ICE
, December 8, 2022

“The writer in Iceland is God,” says Hallgrimur Helgason, an Icelandic author speaking from the small screen affixed to the back of…


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