Reading from an unpublished essay on the murder of Agatha Christie at the Elbo Room in San Francisco. One week after I moved to the bay area.
Literary Death Match with Tana Wojczuk

My essay The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at TheRumpus.net

Happy to report I’m safely moved to my new city by the bay and enjoying my new gig as the Online Editor  for adventure/ecology magazine MYOO. Check out the features there, which run from Anna Garforth’s incredible dirt graffitti to Graham Hill’s inquiry into the nature of being green.

Werner Herzog wants us to be aliens. The filmmaker is a man from outer space. His wide-eyed wonder sometimes tries my patience, as showing around an out of towner can begin as an opportunity to have a chance encounter with my own city but quickly becomes obnoxious. One can’t go around marveling at every skyscraper. But is it an adaptive skill to take these marvels of engineering for granted or have our aesthetic senses become too dull to marvel?

Read the rest at Bomb Magazine’s blog here…

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Directed by Werner Herzog. Photo by Marc Valesella

I sat down with the actress to discuss her new film Certified Copy.

I wrote a critical essay for Bomb focusing on the narrative innovations of Oscar-nominated documentaries Restrepo, Wasteland and Gasland. Check it out here.

Photo courtesy of/copyright Vic Muniz Studio

I’m excited to have a new piece published on the website of the venerable and fascinating Lapham’s Quarterly.

On a recent visit to New York the ever-charming Charles McNair, Books Editor of Paste entertained guests at the sumptuous Jade Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel where he let us know the good news that Paste Magazine will be continuing its excellent arts coverage online. The magazine made a name for itself by being a pioneer in the free music biz, offering free sampler cds of new music with every issue.  As the music has gone online so it seems natural that Paste as a music-focused magazine will too.

Lovely reading at Greenlight Books tonight by the Women of the Rumpus from Volume 1 (so called because they got so many submissions they plan to make a second volume) of their new book.

It’s a great compliation of new writing by women authors. Editors Julie Grecius and Elissa Bassist initially had to battle against the perception that literary writing by women wasn’t funny, but tonight’s reading showed clearly that even with material as dark as cancer, suicide and homelessness there are sparks of levity.  Indeed, as with an inverse proportion the darker the material the more lively the humor became.

For those of you in NY in February, consider attending this wonderful event in support of novelist Charles Bok and his family. A great idea and excellent example of why writers congregate in NYC despite the weather, the prices and the subway yelling.