A cardiologist bought a house perched atop a dune precariously located — he paid cash. A few years later the house toppled in a storm. The cottage colony on Ocean Drive […]
Books & Poetry
BOOKS
In Day, Michael Cunningham Tells a Family Drama in Three Parts
The novel, set in part during the pandemic, never names the pandemic
The rule of thirds is a compositional principle in photography: an image is divided into three equal parts to achieve maximum aesthetic tension. For the writer Michael Cunningham, the rule […]
POETRY
For My Girlfriend Sleeping In
The earliest sunrises of the year come in mid-June. Right before Father’s Day, right before schools let out, and turn the quiet Cape upside down with tourists. On these early […]
IN TRUTH
Linda Coombs Wants Young Readers to Know the Past
The Wampanoag author’s new children’s book aims to bust myths about colonization
“Some people think we all disappeared,” says Linda Coombs, a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah who for nearly 50 years has been a historian and museum curator specializing […]
POETRY
Barn Swallow Math
A mini murmur of more than fifty zig zags above. Pulsing, pendulously swinging as wide as their instincts allowed. Bombardier wings and double knife-point tails. Black silhouettes against the pink […]
POETRY
George Washington Frees the Slaves
Michael Ansara is cofounder of Mass Poetry. His most recent book of poems is What Remains, published in 2022 by Kelsay Books. Submit poems to [email protected]. Include your full name, […]
BATTLEGROUND
Britney Spears’s Search for Decency
The pop singer’s memoir is a graceful retelling of traumatic truths
People have always felt free to say whatever they want about Britney Spears’s personal life. This was true at the beginning of her career when she was in her teens […]
POETRY
Two Poems and an Invitation
Strange creatures and other miracles of summer
Summers By Robert Kuttner I’ve often wondered How the summer of ’39 felt People savoring ordinary joys The dread of doom just over the hill Or the summer of 1914 […]
BOOKS
‘Our Strangers’ Offers Big Provocations in Bite-Size Stories
Lydia Davis finds wit in the senselessness of 21st-century life
In the story “Caramel Drizzle,” Lydia Davis begins with a simple but disorienting question, rendered in quotation marks and without attribution: “Caramel syrup or caramel drizzle?” How are those choices, […]
THE INTERVIEW
Resurrecting Susan Dimock, a Shipwrecked Heroine
Susan Wilson’s story of a nearly forgotten pioneering woman surgeon
Susan Dimock was a celebrated surgeon in the 19th century who died in a shipwreck in 1875 at age 28. In her short life she’d become a light of her […]
IN THE WOODS
Poets From Mexico Build New Worlds in Wellfleet
A Modern House Trust residency on development and design
WELLFLEET — When five Mexican and Mexican-American poets, artists, and architects arrived at the modernist houses that dot the seashores and backwoods here in early October, they had “the best […]
THE INTERVIEW
The Provincetown Writer Who’s Watching You
Heidi Jon Schmidt draws universal truths from life in one small town
You may be checking out at the grocery store, strolling with a friend, or waiting in line for the ATM. You’re talking to the people around you or just staring […]
ARTISTS AND WRITERS
New Kids on the Block
20 fellows arrive at the Fine Arts Work Center
On Pearl Street in Provincetown, the Fine Arts Work Center’s new fellows are settling into their apartments and studios. For now, the spaces are all but empty. The white, unadorned […]
BOOKS
Charles Busch’s Life as a Leading Lady
Just don’t call him a drag queen
Charles Busch — the renowned “male actress” of stage and film, playwright of dozens of shows including Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, which ran for five years off-Broadway, and the Broadway […]
BOOKS
In ‘How to Live,’ Kelle Groom Investigates the Meaning of Home
A Provincetown poet’s new memoir is an odyssey toward compassion
The moment Kelle Groom opens the gray door to her second-floor Brewster Street apartment, a hold-onto-your-hats breeze marking the change in seasons sneaks through. Poetry collections by Nick Flynn, Marie […]
