Irish writer Edna O’Brien’s short story “Madame Cassandra” from her book Saints and Sinners (Bookshop|Amazon) opens with a character observing, “I always love the way bees snuggle into the foxglove … for the coolth and the nectar.” This is part of a...
In a conversation with novelist Ann Patchett, writer Elizabeth McCracken makes a pithy observation about the difference between a novel and a short story. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The Difference Between a Novel and a Short...
Nate in Tucson, Arizona, says his grandmother from Nova Scotia used to express surprise with the exclamation dear me suz! It goes back to the 1820s and is likely a form of dear me, sirs! Variants include suz alive, law me suz, oh suz alive, and law...
Reading A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life (Bookshop|Amazon) feels like auditing a class with creative writing professor writer George Saunders, author of the acclaimed Lincoln in...
Another followup to our conversation about items left in library books and forgotten: a former reference librarian in Denton, Texas, shares photographs of a most unusual business card hidden away in a book and found by a colleague. The front side is...
Great news! You have a 50 percent chance of getting all of the answers to Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s “Band or Short Story?” puzzle. For example, is “My Life with The Thrill Kill Kult” an electronic industrial rock band or the title of a short story...
