A Journey Through the Familiar: William T. Vollmann’s California In 2006, Sean Wilsey and Matt Weiland came up with an idea to write a book. It took them two years to pull together a collection of travelogues, detailed narratives, and encapsulating essays. State by State: a Panoramic Portrait of America, was to be a compilation Read more…
Setting: A story’s support and meaning By Michael Lin “Authors use setting to create meaning, just as painters use backgrounds and objects to render ideas.” ~Eudora Welty Often overlooked and brushed past, setting is the main supporting column of any great story. Without setting, the characters wouldn’t have a place to be at all, anywhere, Read more…
Jason is just beginning Intro to Rhetoric which uses State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America as textbook. Many years ago (10) another student wrote an essay on Joe Sacco’s inimitable style, but in Jason’s foray into the unit, he hit a line drive that kept on sailing until … HOMERUN! One of the Read more…
Sexually graphic books in school libraries and actual US Government censorship WARNING: Due to the nature of this subject, some sexually graphic information is included in the below. It is only named, but younger students should only read with parent supervision. by Alex Lin The current issue of school library book banning was introduced to Read more…
Hoaglund’s Shell The critic and editor Phillip Lopate has many insights on the personal essay – how it functions, what makes it tick, how it is attractive to readers, and its various unique aspects. In his second aspect of the personal essay (the first is “The Conversational Element”), he defines “Honesty, Confession, and Privacy” as Read more…
