recent posts
- Channeling Collective Fury into Fat Justice Is the Transformational Power We Need: Part 2
- Channeling Collective Fury into Fat Justice Is the Transformational Power We Need: Part 1
- Our Dizzying, Repeating Cycles of Cultural Amnesia Around Sex Ed: Part 2
- Our Dizzying, Repeating Cycles of Cultural Amnesia Around Sex Ed: Part 1
- We’ll Be Hiding from the Rainfall for These Beacon Beach Reads
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Category: Patricia Harman
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The literary world lost two vital voices last week: author David Foster Wallace and poet/poetry blogger Reginald Shepherd. Kottke has assembled a comprehensive links list for DFW memorials, although you could spend the day trolling through the thousands of blog posts reacting to his death. You can read Reginald Shepherd’s final poem, “God-With-Us,” on his…
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So here’s my problem teaching cultural history: I am a devout and devoted, dedicated and dutiful, fan of the Boston Red Sox. There are many, many, many well known burdens in being a fan of Boston. Until recently, there was the whole “curse” thing. The year 1918, which could be mentioned for many historically important…
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I’m the kind of person who looks to literature to make sense of life, so when I learned that my daughter was deaf and had cerebral palsy, I sobbed for a while and then I logged onto Amazon.com. I was looking for deep and sustaining stories to guide me on the long path ahead, and…
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The Seattle-Post Intelligencer ran a feature last week about poor access to fresh, healthy food in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. The article quotes Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty: "Unless cities begin to realize they have a role to play in ensuring access to healthy food,…
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Guest blogger Kelly McMasters, whose first book, an environmental memoir about her blue-collar hometown on the east end of Long Island, discusses ways she’s tried to make the publication process greener.
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David Gessner puzzles over the problem of the environmental essay. “Nature essays, at their worst, are narrated by people who give little indication that any of them have the quality that many of us find most important for living on earth: a sense of humor. From their writing you’d never guess that they have ever…
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by Helene Atwan I have the honor to serve as the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award administrator for PEN-NE (please visit the web site if you don’t know this wonderful organization, devoted to the causes of literacy and freedom of expression). Last Sunday was the day that the award was conferred, this year to novelist Joshua Ferris…
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I was on a semi-vacation last week, so this week’s link roundup is a bit larger than normal. Enjoy! Howard Zinn is adding to his People’s History of the United States with a new graphic novel, A People’s History of the American Empire. Read about it at Tom Dispatch, and check out this Viggo Mortensen-narrated…
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Books are great—we all love books around here—but seeing a writer in person, giving a reading or a talk, can stimulate the intellect, illuminate the work, and delightfully entertain. Mary Oliver is one of Beacon’s most popular writers, and, according to the Poetry Foundation, author of five of the top seven best-selling poetry books last…
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by Allison Trzop Several weeks ago, a couple of folks from Beacon — including Director Helene Atwan — had the pleasure and the privilege of attending several readings and tapings for a miniseries being shot over at Emerson College’s Cutler Majestic Theatre here in Boston. Hosted by Executive Producer Howard Zinn — not only a…
Beacon Broadside 