Dedicated to Sigolène Vinson
I once did a class about violence and hyper-masculinity at Auburn University. I’d emailed the administration about what would happen if a school shooting happened. They never got back to me. About a month later there …
Essay
The Moms of Hermann Park
For four months after Katrina, my family split into uneven halves. My husband lived in Baton Rouge, and I took our son, Andrew, to Houston for his fall semester. He went to Jesuit High School and four hundred of the …
Lucky Dog
Part 1: New Orleans to Houston
12:30 p.m.: Lunch
In the four years I’ve spent in New Orleans I’d never had a Lucky Dog (this is a tourist staple, like the Dodger Dog in LA or Spumoni Gardens pizza in …
The Legacy of Miller Williams: Why Literary Magazines Matter
Struggling against an “arctic blast” rare to New Orleans and its un-insulated homes, the mechanical thermostat in my house dithered just below 55 degrees, so I decided to seek refuge in NOR’s well-heated office. There, I fumbled through the very …
“When we do it, it will feel like a great day for our family”: The Brangelina Wedding and Aniston’s Baby Bump
“Brangelina” wedding cake topper, by Mike Leavitt
One of artist Mike Leavitt’s wedding cake toppers from about five years ago depicts “Brangelina,” or Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and their children as fused and as a notable marriage—even though they were …
The English Ward
“What,” say you, “are you giving me advice? Indeed, have you already advised yourself, already corrected your own faults? Is this the reason why you have leisure to reform other men?” No, I am not so shameless as to undertake …
For Actors in Pornographic Films
Almighty God, in your infinite wisdom you have outfitted us with the necessary physical accouterments for reproduction, the stimulation and appreciation of which not only brings us great pleasure, but allows the codes of our DNA to mingle with our …
Literature is the “Stuffy” Art
A student recently confronted me with the maxim that most poets, novelists, and playwrights suffer from a disease he called “universal stuffiness.” Trying to be “relevant,” I agreed that literature on the whole was perhaps the stuffiest of the stuffy …
For Not Knowing
Almighty LORD, incline Thine ear to hear this day a confession: we sometimes do not feel real. That is, when we take the time to reflect upon our existence, we grow fearful, in part because we are unable to sum …
For Beds
Merciful God, we humbly thank Thee for setting the earth on its rotation around the sun, thus providing humanity with periods of light that permit us, as we go about our daily business, to recognize with relative clarity the things …
