recent writing
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from “Thend”
Ekphrasis, self-Googling, and Sotheby’s all collide in this excerpt from Ben Doller’s long poem, “Thend.” In sonnets that rat-a-tat-tat like an auctioneer’s call, Doller discovers his doppelganger, considers his mortality, and learns that “it’s hard to say when one’s saying goodbye.” The results are stunning and funny and self-aware.
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The Last Crusade
In her characteristically sure-handed mix of the Classics and the confessional, Katie Hartsock investigates faith, learning—as her tercets and braided narratives accumulate and sing—“that God does not abandon so much // as He lets be.” And yes, to our great joy, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery come along for the ride.
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Module E6: Quest for High Ashes
Years in the making, Ernest Hilbert’s “Module 6: A Quest for High Ashes” is a fully playable Dungeons & Dragons adventure campaign for character levels 8-12—replete with a map and illustrations! Call up your friends. Dust off your D20. Your author is “adept at spells, including ventriloquism […] and dry sarcasm.”
from the archive
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The Showrunner
A hit show, a teenage star, the arc of fame, the walk of shame: A bitterly funny Hollywood fable by Frankie Thomas.
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Scavenger Loop
“Who would I show it so unprocessed to—” David Baker rummages through dozens of texts, finding words for his mother’s death in an America of endless manufacture, modification and forestalled decay.
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The Cabinet of Ordinary Affairs: Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer and Cheryl Wassenaar
Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer and Cheryl Wassenaar take us into The Cabinet of Ordinary Affairs, an art exhibit inspired by a poetry manuscript by Schlaifer, in which they explore the bureaucracy of the mind through imagined interior government officials and cabinets.