“Before I knew I was a human being and not a dog, my earliest sense of myself was male. I am just a funny sort of guy. I don’t hate […]
Books & Poetry
BOOK REVIEW
In Memorial Drive, Poet Natasha Trethewey Revisits Her Mother’s Death
A daughter’s memoir untangles trauma and grapples with festering grief
In “Monument,” a poem in Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey describes watching ants bring soil up from her mother’s grave. “Believe me when I say/ I’ve tried not to begrudge them/ […]
IN MEMORIAM
The Poet of the Dunes Brought Down to Earth
Recalling Harry Kemp on the 60th Anniversary of His Death
Fewer and fewer people these days have a clear idea of who Harry Kemp was. Some might recognize his name from Harry Kemp Way, the road in Provincetown where Outer […]
BOOK REVIEW
The Wild, Weird, Witty Way of Birds
Jennifer Ackerman finds reflections of ourselves at the edges of bird behavior
Long ago, my children and I celebrated at the library whenever we came across a favorite picture book by Arnold Lobel. No matter how many times we read it, The […]
BOOK REVIEW
Sylvia Harvey Shines a Light on The Shadow System
Family stories reveal the ripple effects of incarceration in America
Sylvia A. Harvey, in her book The Shadow System: Mass Incarceration and the American Family, offers a crash course on the gruesome realities of American prisons. Beginning with her own […]
BOOK REVIEW
The Contrasts and Convergence of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
Penial Joseph’s The Sword and the Shield examines the titans of black power and civil rights
In 1972, James Baldwin wrote “The Shot That Echoes Still,” a painful and personal essay for Esquire magazine reflecting on the assassinations of Malcolm X in 1965 and Martin Luther […]
QUEER LIT
Resurrecting Hervé Guibert’s Invisible Ink
A newly translated collection of stories traces the fabled French writer’s brief career
In the introduction to Written in Invisible Ink: Selected Stories, by Hervé Guibert, the late queer literary hero of the AIDS era, translator Jeffrey Zuckerman writes that in French, “invisible […]
BOOK REVIEW
In Why Fish Don’t Exist, Lulu Miller Finds Truth in Taxonomy
Reflecting on the obsessions of a Stanford scientist, she heals herself
Lulu Miller calls David Starr Jordan, the protagonist of her book Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life, “David.” Born in the […]
QUEER HISTORY
The Heroic Struggle to Be Out in Central Pennsylvania
William Burton traces the building of an LGBTQ community
The history of the gay liberation movement is usually told from the point of view of those at the center of the action, from the Mattachine Society and Daughters of […]
BOOK REVIEW
Racism and The Broken Heart of America
Walter Johnson’s history of St. Louis documents the causes of a continuing crisis
In the months after the murder of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, historian Walter Johnson began work on The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and […]
AUTHORS
Mona Awad Masters the Fine Art of Horror
Her new novel, Bunny, is about female bonding gone bad
In her latest book, Bunny, Mona Awad has crafted a darkly funny horror story about female friendships, class anxiety, art, and academia that has been likened to Heathers, Mean Girls, […]
LIBRARIES
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Print books return to circulation at Outer Cape libraries
All four Outer Cape libraries began curbside services last week, although Provincetown library staff are calling it “street-side,” because they don’t have a curb. Directors Amy Raff of the Provincetown […]
BOOK REVIEW
A Reader’s Journey Into ‘A Long Petal of the Sea’
Isabel Allende’s historical novel resonates with current crises
With so much reading time between gardening days and walks to the bay in my privileged Eastham world, I was fortunate to have picked up Isabel Allende’s newest work of […]
AUTHORS
Christina Clancy Writes of Her Second Home
A family saga is set in Wellfleet
Wellfleet comes vividly to life in Christina Clancy’s The Second Home, a gripping novel about a family and second chances. The story centers on an inheritance dispute, which, for a […]
POETRY
In High Tide, Ed Meek Writes of Surging Joy and Danger
The Wellfleet poet has a meditative new collection
Ed Meek’s fourth book of poetry is all about cycles. High Tide, which Aubade Publishing will put out in July (its May launch was postponed due to the coronavirus), takes […]
