Last night I attended my first Literary Death Match, and while it would’ve been entertaining to simply be in the audience, I was experiencing this American Idol/Double Dare-esque reading as a competitor. A few weeks earlier, the most awesome Mindy Abovitz asked me if I wanted to represent Tom Tom Magazine in a battle ofContinue reading “this is what a literary death match champion looks like”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
crunch time
tomorrow is the first of september, and according to the brightly colored reminders that decorate my google calendar, that means: one month and three weeks until the GREs, and three months and one week until MFA applications are due. it is crunch time. it’s hard to look back at a summer and deem it eitherContinue reading “crunch time”
notes from home
on monday i got the call that my pappy had died, and four hours later i was on an amtrak train, going home. we have one saying in my family about death, and that is death is weird. it’s weird. what else can you say about it? i’ve been here in the suburbs of pennsylvaniaContinue reading “notes from home”
calendars are for suckers
two weeks into my vacation, and i have lost all sense of time. is it tuesday or friday? when did i go to bed last night? can i still order a bagel at 3pm? i feel like i have eleven months of pent up young urban night owl lifestyle coming through. here is a smallContinue reading “calendars are for suckers”
wordcount.$&^%&$##
“If you know what you’re going to write when you’re writing a poem, it’s going to be average.” — Derek Walcott it is okay to not know what you are doing, right?right.word count = 1,896
verbs of summer
suddenly you look up and july is 3/4 of the way done. when not sorting water colors or crayons or construction paper, i have someone managed to pass the summer: volunteering at rock camp socializing post-rock camp (this included several nights of convincing myself i am of fit age/mind to stay out until 4 a.m.Continue reading “verbs of summer”
independence
definitions of independence on the web: freedom from control or influence of another or others the successful ending of the American Revolution; “they maintained close relations with England even after independence” a city in western Missouri; the beginning of the Santa Fe Trail in other words: when i found a blue 3 speed racer bicycleContinue reading “independence”
rip bike
today when i got home from work, my bicycle was gone.it was like being in a dream. when i had left, sleepily, around 8am, it had been there: chained around the thin tree outside my building, a kryptonite u lock holding it all together. it was the same place i had always kept it. neighborsContinue reading “rip bike”
loving +dreading+ loving the dyke march
My freshman year at NYU, I walked into my social criticism class and casually tossed my new issue of Ms magazine on the table. The cover–which I can only find now in this little jpeg–showed two girls (young, with short dyed hair, ball chain necklaces, and heavy eyeliner) on the cusp of making out. Later,Continue reading “loving +dreading+ loving the dyke march”
only in new york
Last Friday evening, after declining dinner invitations to take a much needed walk around downtown before finally settling on heading home, I stood on the F train platform at 2nd Ave. A couple next to me–the woman carrying a potted orchid–looked at my tattoo, then smiled. I smiled back. My tattoo has invited a varietyContinue reading “only in new york”
Courtney Gillette 