I saw the movie Inside Out with my kids months ago and meant to write something about how hard and great it was to see such an accurate depiction of depression, made so lucid and visual. Many people think that to ……
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I’ve just returned from three lovely events in the Toronto area, including visits with large undergrad classes at York and McMaster who have honored me by reading my book—closely. One of the most charming aspects of these visits was how ……
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I am working on my first book-length translation, from Portuguese, the only language I have attempted with any real seriousness to translate. I had been away from Brazil for years, and wanted a way to keep up my language skills. What ……
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As I have written elsewhere in this irregular account of The Writing Life (a.k.a. Thoughts No One Else Would Publish), I have suspicions about the value of meeting a writer in real life and the apparently normal and widespread desire ……
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People frequently comment on how ‘happy’ my kids seem. That may be true, and I’m glad if it is—if they are in fact happy (I think it’s true) and if they strike people that way (which I take to mean ……
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“If you have an idea, just think it If you have one eye, just blink it, If you have a drop of rum, just drink it, Working with what you got.” –So-Called, Sleepover This album has been my workout song ……
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I’m the kind of person who writes our family’s holiday letter in January, except for the one year I kept promising it to people until July, and then decided guiltily that since it was then closer to the next year, I ……
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My friend Justin St. Germain wrote a book, Son of a Gun, which I had already very much wanted to read even before it won this year’s Barnes and Noble Discover Award in Nonfiction. It’s the story of Justin’s life ……
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At 5:45 today, I woke from a nightmare that 100,000 Iraqis, fleeing our bombs, had been herded into an Iranian refugee camp, and they all needed to pee. There wasn’t room for them all in the camp, but those who ……
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“Have you read the Goldfinch?” This Vanity Fair article suggests it’s the cocktail party opener of the summer. I’m pleased to report that hasn’t been my observation in Canada, where I have spent the summer, but true enough in my ……
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