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How do you stop the hurt of having to breathe? —Toi Derricotte from The Telly Poems “His father would say, ‘You are not good for your own sake. That probably isn’t even possible. You are good as a courtesy to everyone around you. Keeping a promise or breaking it, telling the truth or lying—these things…
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In addition to classes called “What If” about speculative fiction and “Utopia and Dream” about idealistic societies both real and imagined, I taught genre fiction to my sophomores and juniors. Science fiction, fantasy, mystery . . . I found short story examples and we read and discussed the expected tropes and the real-life satisfactions, explorations,…
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There had been drug dealers and prostitutes and a “witch” living there. The police would come for Debbie when she had a drug-overdose-triggered “complete psychotic break” and the FBI to investigate number 12, where a member of the Weather Underground had stayed. Rent was cheap and the location just up the street from the Blue Moon…
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN + Oregon Live) — Four Oregon State Police troopers went into a Corvallis coffee shop without wearing a mask, which prompted the OSP superintendent to put at least one of them on administrative leave during the investigation. [The state has mandated masks for everyone inside public places as a way to stem…
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In the second and third terms of my MFA program in 2006, I wrote my critical essay about Canadian writer and Nobel Laureate Alice Munro. My first drafts discussed several of her stories and my essay ballooned past forty pages, but the final version was just over thirty pages, the maximum I was allowed, and focussed…




