Roxana Robinson Reads from The Little School Tales of Disappearance and Survival
Last time I heard my full name it was at Army headquarters, the evening of the day I was kidnapped. The military man repeated it in a calm and… More
Sarah Schulman Reads from an Unpublished Memoir
Bored as I was, I began, along with a few other inmates, to make worry beads. The dough of the bread was the material we used to form the… More
Canyon Sam: Sky Train
Canyon Sam received a 2010 Open Book Award.At the beginning of my fifth week, I flew from Chengdu in western China to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, a three-hour flight… More
A Chair Full of Ashes
Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest. —Emerson When I was six, my father inherited some money. With it, he bought some property and built… More
Left Behind
“Everybody lock up!” The guard barked over the intercom. “Get in your cells, now!” “Oh God, what now?” one of the girls asked, picking up her plastic bowl and gathering… More
As the Creamed Beef Goes…
For those of you unfortunate enough to be unacquainted with this particular culinary delight, creamed beef is simply: browned ground beef, simmered in cream of mushroom soup, and served… More
Runaway Justice
Just a few miles from the courthouse the two Durham County deputies stopped at a diner and bought me a hamburger and milkshake, and from there the four-hour ride… More
A Neighborhood Rite of Passage
The game was walking the plank, only this game was enacted over a ten story silo in a abandoned chocolate factory, at one time the employment epicenter of the… More
Boo to a Goose
I saw that phrase again: “He wouldn’t say boo to a goose.” It gets to me every time when I read it in some book, and thank God I… More
Deborah Amos: Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East
It was easy to believe, as we watched U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama stride across the stage at Cairo University on June 4, 2009 that a new era was… More
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