So many stories, both harrowing and heartwarming, have been told about World War II that it can be hard to imagine what a new novel might add. But as we […]
Books & Poetry
FICTION
Circus Peanuts
It’s just that I was missing my father. His guilty-yet-triumphant toddler smile when he finished off a brand-new pack of the Circus Peanuts we both loved and were supposed to […]
DREAM STATE
Poetry in Motion
Monique Brunet-Weinmann’s new book, Exil, recounts anxious times and a migration story
As a child, reared close to the Atlantic Ocean in Brittany, the westernmost region of France, Monique Brunet-Weinmann excelled at reciting poetry from memory. “Pretty soon,” she says, “I started […]
BOOKS
Jerome Cohen’s Life in Law
The China scholar, an ‘inveterate optimist,’ holds out hope for human rights
What a life Jerome Cohen has led: Modest New Jersey roots. An education in law at Yale. Clerkships with Supreme Court justices Earl Warren and Felix Frankfurter. Practicing and teaching […]
IN THE MIDS
Demons on the Hour
Sara Martin is a death tourist, a mockumentarian, and a poet
Sara Martin takes a seat in the courtyard at the Fine Arts Work Center and turns her face toward the sun. It’s just past 2 p.m. “Two p.m. is a […]
POETRY
Two Poems by Joe Cunningham
On His Way In minutes Timmy’s mastered his skim board, found the rhythm to toss it in front of his jump, and to land while in motion, as a man […]
ARTIFICE
Kevin Fitchett Is at The Masters
A FAWC fellow returns to Provincetown to write a novel about family, heartbreak, and golf
Five years ago, when Kevin Fitchett was a Fine Arts Work Center fellow for the first time, he mostly worked on poetry. Now he’s back, and fiction has taken the […]
BOOKS
Gaza Has Broken Peter Beinart’s Heart
In a new book, he asks Jews to stop seeing themselves as victims
Peter Beinart, one of the most prominent public intellectuals on the American Jewish left, wrote in July 2020 that he had changed his mind about a “two-state solution” to the […]
GENRE
New Settings and New Beginnings
From historical fiction to a dystopian horror novel
Matthew Wamser revels in the space he’s been given as a Fine Arts Work Center writing fellow. Working in a first-floor apartment with exposed wood timbers, he feels the presence […]
LYRICISM
A Strange Third Thing
The best poems, says Fine Arts Work Center fellow Parker Hobson, have ‘a tender screwballism’
Parker Hobson, a writing fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, is interested in “what’s still present of the past,” he says. Walking in Provincetown, the poet noticed a plaque […]
PARALLEL PLAY
Moving To and Fro
Janice Redman and Elizabeth Bradfield navigate a creative partnership in sculpture and poetry
Janice Redman, a sculptor, and Elizabeth Bradfield, a poet, are neighbors in North Truro who have worked together for the past 15 years. “She sits in this chair and works […]
GOING DEEP
Straight Lines and Sharp Teeth
For novelist Clara Mallon, expressing what you mean is lifesaving
The first time Clara Mallon wrote a story, she wrote it only in her head. She was five years old, looking out the window at school. “I was narrating from […]
POETRY
Hungry
A lot of my life has been spent learning what it means to live in a world with coyotes that need to eat, and rabbits that want to live — […]
PARALLELS
Kai Conradi Is Nothing You Could Write Down
At the edges of the continent, a writer unspools memory, geography, and self
Kai Conradi shouldered the sky and looked down. The land expanded, color rushing in, taking on the contours of a relief map. Then, a strip of sand appeared, sea on […]
YOU’VE GOT MAIL
Indie Reads: Substack Edition
What’s keeping our staff and contributors glued to their inboxes
For this installment of Indie Reads, we asked Independent staff and contributors to write about some of their favorite Substack email newsletters. The mix we received includes a running invitation […]
