Category Archives: dialogues
Honoré de Balzac Used Coffee to Write La Comédie Humaine and That’s Good Enough For Me
Scene: My office, yesterday afternoon. I’m making tea for my friend and collaborator Teddy after a short lunch at Veracruzana. Teddy [looking out window]: Uh oh. Someone spelled “CRYSTAL” out there on the soccer field. Amherst! Me: I guess it’s … Continue reading
Filed under dialogues
Dear America: You’re Broke, Hungry, and Dying Young, Also Maybe On Fire But Not A Gasoline Fire Because You Can’t Afford That
Life expectancy in the US for women has dropped sharply, at its lowest since the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918 As if sensing this, in the same time period, suicide rates jumped among children and young adults. Also, an average … Continue reading
Filed under apocalypse, current events, dialogues
In Which An International Student Describes My Country To Me
What follows is an excerpt from an alumni interview with a prospective student [easily, I might add, one of the most impressive young women I've ever met]. Me: Tell me about some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome while … Continue reading
Filed under dialogues
In Which I Find A New Motto
6:10 PM lance: take the extra shot they always seem to ask at the airport bar…. I’ve always thought it was funny, make it a double for a dollar or two more. 6:11 PM so I’d say the new motto … Continue reading
Filed under dialogues
I Don’t Know What To Call This, Because I’m So Appalled.
Scene: Chevy Chase, MD. A small suburban neighborhood. My sister is moving to California. It’s June. The movers are packing and as I eat lunch, I speak with one of the movers, a young woman in charge of packing the … Continue reading
Filed under dialogues, media, what is wrong with us
Short Exchanges At The AWP: In The Bar At The Hilton
Scene: I go to the bar at the Hilton, to meet up with Aaron Hamburger and get a drink. There’s one chair. I sit down. We’re surrounded by 7500 writers on several floors, in New York for the Associated Writing … Continue reading
Filed under dialogues
Ending Your Days Of Bachelor Loneliness With A Wild Husband
10:28 AM thiago: dude i need a BF 10:29 AM hooking up casually is exhausting haha me: it is why do you say that? 10:30 AM what happened? thiago: haha emotionally exhausting that is 10:31 AM nothing happened, im just … Continue reading
The Deathless Robot Hookers of Myspace
6:32 PM me: You need to join facebook so we can play scrabulous. 6:33 PM Laura: what is it? me: online scrabble but not timed. Laura: and can it possibly be worth joining facebook? me: yes. plus you can play … Continue reading
Filed under dialogues
Teeth-bleaching, check. Laser resurfacing, check. Sentences, check.
_______: So. . .[name withheld publisher] just asked to see a headshot of me while they consider my manuscript. Is that. . .? Me: Yeah, actually. I have a friend whose Italian and French publishers asked to see a body … Continue reading
and then we really met
Setting: The Barn, Bread Loaf campus of Middlebury College, a series of wicker lounge chairs along the wall. Me: So, where are you here from? Christopher Castellani: Boston. [Pause] This is going to sound weird, but I think I know … Continue reading
