Death, betrayals, hard times, violent storms, seemingly dead-end situations with a spark of hope: Sally Cabot Gunning’s new book, Painting the Light, has everything her readers have come to expect. […]
Books & Poetry
PROVINCETOWN BOOK FESTIVAL
A Tale of Two Queer Artistic Partnerships
New biographies of two towering literary figures: Willa Cather and F.O. Matthiessen
What is the relationship between artistic vocation and sexual identity? Between creative and romantic partnerships? And how should we assess forms of same-sex union and choices about queer self-representation from […]
PROVINCETOWN BOOK FESTIVAL
Searching for Solutions to the Racial Divide in Health Care
Linda Villarosa’s Under the Skin addresses systemic injustices
Finding solutions to deep-rooted systemic injustices can seem impossible. But as Linda Villarosa writes in Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health […]
BOOK REVIEW
Can Combatting Racism and White Supremacy Be … Fun?
Using games and humor to tackle some very serious subjects
Some planted “Black Lives Matter” signs in their yards after the murder of George Floyd. Putting out a sign might be a start to addressing systemic racism, argue W. Kamau […]
BOOK REVIEW
Lizabeth Cohen’s Reconsideration of Urban Renewal
A history of Ed Logue’s legacy has resonance for the Outer Cape
In Saving America’s Cities, the prize-winning historian Lizabeth Cohen bends over backwards to be fair to Ed Logue, the architect of efforts in New Haven, then Boston, and finally New […]
POETRY
Looking Back at a Provincetown That Was
Gabrielle Rilleau layers family, place, and memory in a new collection of poems
Fishing villages know the sea will take what it wants. Storms roll in, boats sink, and accidents happen. In her new book of poems, No Room for Slippage, Gabrielle Rilleau […]
POETRY
Two Sonnets From the Pandemic
John Okrent’s first book, This Costly Season: A Crown of Sonnets, was published by Arrowsmith Press in 2021. Okrent is a family doctor who works at the Sea Mar Community […]
LINE BREAK
Mad Libs Poetry: Pushing the World Away to See It Anew
Alexander DuToit brings Sam Hamill’s heron into the darkroom
This month I asked Alexander DuToit, a senior at Nauset Regional High School, if he’d “Mad Lib” a poem — that is, take an existing poem and swap out everything […]
BOOK REVIEW
Everyone Is to Blame, But Blame Is Not the Point
Lindsey J. Palmer explores the shifting landscapes of friendship in Reservations for Six
The ritual of birthday dinners among old friends — the lengthy and indulgent courses, the observations of milestones met, missed, and anticipated — provides the structure of Eastham resident Lindsey […]
THAT’S ITALIAN
Connecting the Dots From Sicily to SpaghettiOs
Ian MacAllen savors the role of red sauce in the making of Italian-Americanism
I want to get this out of the way at the get-go: I was raised on SpaghettiOs, and I loved them. Surely you remember Chef Boyardee with his jaunty toque, […]
READING ROOM
When the Big Bad Wolf Walks in the Door
A children’s book about domestic abuse might be best read in a supportive setting
The book was handed to me by my daughter’s friend with a request to read it aloud. We were at the Wellfleet Public Library, and as I started reading, I realized […]
WRITING THROUGH THE PAIN
Cookie Mueller’s Carefree Misadventures, Carefully Told
In a new edition, a collection becomes a memoir of a life lived without hesitation
Cookie Mueller and her friends were cold. They were in Provincetown, it was the winter of 1970, and Mueller, who is best known for acting in John Waters’s films, and […]
POLITICAL TALK
How the Republican Party Went Crazy
David Corn of Mother Jones magazine previews his diagnosis of an ‘American psychosis’
The award-winning journalist, author, and MSNBC contributor David Corn pulls no punches. In a recent column, the Mother Jones Washington bureau chief writes that we are living “in a world […]
BOOK REVIEW
American Racism’s Musical Score
Emily Bingham dismantles her Old Kentucky Home
Federal Hill, a restored antebellum plantation house in Bardstown, Ky. better known as the Old Kentucky Home, opened its doors to statewide fanfare and a throng of visitors on July […]
LINE BREAK
A Poem That Loosely Follows Summer’s Brush
In Kimiko Hahn’s Wellfleet sojourn, a jumble of memories, worries, and relationships
Summer unfurls to reveal the Cape Cod most people imagine: sandy, sticky, hedonistic, salty. There’s a looseness to the air. Right now, the lush chestnut tree outside the window is […]
