Bourbon and Milk features lessons, observations, and conversations by and with writers living out there in one of the most perplexing outposts of the human condition– parenthood. In this monthly series, Contributing Editor Giuseppe Taurino will dive into the dark spaces where parenting sometimes pushes us, and explore the unexpected ways writers may grow in them. If you’re interested in joining the conversation or contributing a Bourbon and Milk post, query Giuseppe Taurino at ... [READ MORE]
NOTEBOOK
I Read Dead People: Eudora Welty and Failure, “First Love”
“Whatever happened, it happened in extraordinary times, in a season of dreams, and in Natchez it was the bitterest winter of them all.” The opening of “First Love” is the best prose Eudora Welty ever wrote. In its welcome sweep, we perceive the “red percussion” of Indian fires in the distance, the mute wheel of gulls, travelers picking through the “glassy tunnels of the Trace” in the “strange drugged fall of snow,” and the “somnambulist” river lifting from its bed in subconscious craving for ... [READ MORE]
Things Buffalo: My New Skin
Driving along the Outer Harbor, I watch for signs that direct me to the beach, watching for parked vehicles with bike racks, stickers on bumpers that might say 13.1, 26.2, 70.3, 140.6. My Toyota has a 26.2, though I haven’t done a tri yet, an ironman or a half. I see boats docked along the harbor, a place called Dug’s Dive, which I hear serves strong drinks, thick and tasty ice cream. Lake Erie, to my right, helps me find direction, knowing on the map it’s west of the city. I’m not so good ... [READ MORE]
Things American: Buffalo
Buffalo is a whale that fell asleep at the bottom of the ocean. Buffalo is a three-year-old that doesn't cater to vegetarians. Buffalo is a new poem. It’s that weird bird that turns into fire. Buffalo is a Bowie knife run across a forearm twenty years ago. It’s an outpost of a long gone people. Buffalo is a cow's heart perfectly preserved in a jar of formaldehyde. Buffalo is a city block of antique shops with one kick ass record store. Buffalo is the best thing ever to happen to itself. Thing ... [READ MORE]
Things American: The Buffalo Sentence (Federman, Coetzee, Creeley).
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. This is actually a grammatical sentence, featuring Buffalo the city, the animal the buffalo, and an obscure verb, to buffalo, meaning to intimidate or bully. Substituting different words for each of these parts we can hear the structure of the sentence better, as in, “Cincinnati bison Cincinnati bison intimidate intimidate Cincinnati bison.” It is perhaps coincidental, but as a student, fiction writer, and professor ... [READ MORE]
Things American: An Introduction to Buffalo
This week for Things American, we're excited to share the work of Kim Chinquee, Brian Mihok, and Ted Pelton, who are writers and/or artists and/or publishers based in Buffalo, New York. I asked them to contribute and share their experience of the city because it has been on my mind lately, what with the bankruptcy of Detroit; and because I'm from Western New York, although I haven't been to Buffalo since the &Now conference in 2009; and because it's hot every day here in Austin, and I've ... [READ MORE]