Cynthia Bargar was writing short fiction when her friend, the poet Michael Burkard, urged her to turn toward poetry. “He would read my stories,” says Bargar, “and say, ‘Why aren’t […]
Books & Poetry
BOOKS
Steven Rowley Treasures Old Friends
In The Celebrants, the author explores the importance of having people ‘who knew you before’
Author Steven Rowley is having a moment and says he’s trying to fully appreciate the unexpected highs while hoping the other shoe won’t eventually drop. In April, Rowley won the […]
STORYTELLING
Connecting Provincetown’s Queer Past and Present
The Generations Project’s twin objectives: ‘anthologizing’ and forging an intergenerational community
PROVINCETOWN — Tens of thousands of people descend on this queer haven at land’s end every summer to eat, drink, and be merry with chosen family. Adam Golub, the creative […]
LINE BREAK
Winging Into Season
Melanie Braverman’s ‘Cusp’ celebrates a month of change
Parking lots in Provincetown are charging. The Dolphin Fleet is taking people out, and the ferries are already bringing the clack of roller bags down the pier and into town. […]
TRANSLATION
Liberating Kafka From the Myth of Kafka
Ross Benjamin’s translation of Kafka’s diaries is the first of its kind
EASTHAM — When the German-speaking Czech writer Franz Kafka died in 1924 from tuberculosis, he ordered his close friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his work. Brod, […]
‘BOUNDARY SCHOOL’
Liberating and Healing the Body Through Writing
Antoinette Cooper uses narrative medicine to repair individual and generational trauma
Even over Zoom, Antoinette Cooper’s presence radiates harmony. The poet, medical humanist, and spiritual practitioner is calling in from her home in New York City, where she says rodents have […]
LINE BREAK
In Praise of the Cormorant
Brendan Galvin’s poem honors the ‘shag rats’ of the Outer Cape ecosystem
Spring is in the air and on the water. These past few weeks, I’ve been watching a colony of double-crested cormorants, back after wintering south of here, remake their nests […]
WRITERS
Staking Out a New Lexicon
From Virginia to Kyoto, poet Jorrell Watkins writes the rhythms of an interdisciplinary world
Jorrell Watkins is a student of many disciplines: playwriting, teaching, music, conflict mediation, and martial arts, among others. He’s developed theater productions, taught writing workshops, and earned a black belt […]
WRITERS
John Murillo Makes Music of Translation
Fifteen years and two books later, a poet returns to the Fine Arts Work Center
When poet John Murillo arrived in Provincetown last October for his second fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center, he wasn’t quite sure where his work would take him. Since […]
WRITERS
A Journey From a Nigerian Village to the Outer Cape
Bhion Achimba’s writing situates personal experience in a wider political and social reality
Growing up in a small farming village in southeastern Nigeria, Bhion Achimba was not supposed to become a writer. His family lacked the resources to send him to college, and […]
LINE BREAK
Is Artificial Intelligence Going to Take Over Poetry?
Spoiler alert: No — at least, not yet
Questions about the promise and existential threat of artificial intelligence are everywhere these days. What can A.I. do? What should it do? As recently as last year, most of the […]
WRITERS
Kim Coleman Foote’s Art of Biomythography
The FAWC writing fellow explores the ‘muddiness’ of history and memory
“When you forget parts of a history, patterns repeat themselves,” says Kim Coleman Foote. “This goes for the great human tragedies as much as for intergenerational trauma within families.” Foote, […]
WRITERS
Finding Rhythm and Beauty in the Strange and Odd
Kieron Walquist brings a ‘queer, neurodivergent hillbilly perspective’ to his visceral poetry
Late at night, hearing the coyotes cry, Kieron Walquist watches as a red-tailed fox makes its rounds of the Fine Arts Work Center campus. When Walquist and the fox finally […]
LINE BREAK
A Brief History of the Whale Fishery
On Provincetown, whaling, people, and poetry
I recently saw an exhibit on the second floor of the Provincetown library: a case alongside the Rose Dorothea containing a whaling harpoon and line, a few images, and a […]
WRITERS
Stories of Tradition and Modernity
Gothataone Moeng explores the tensions between the past and the present
It’s an exciting time for Fine Arts Work Center writing fellow Gothataone Moeng. Her first book, a collection of short stories set in her home country, was published earlier this […]
