Brock Clarke, a native of upstate New York, received his Ph.D. in English at the University of Rochester. He is currently an assistant professor of Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in New England Review, Mississippi Review, American Fiction, The Journal, Brooklyn Review, South Carolina Review, Chronicle of [...]
The opening sentence of the title story in Brock Clarke’s latest collection of stories, Carrying the Torch, is sure to get your attention (particularly if you are of the male persuasion): I decided last night that someday soon I am going to rip my husband’s penis off with my bare hands. With this sentence Clarke [...]
It is becoming increasingly difficult to create parody in this country as stories like this come to light: Professor Says Pink Locker Room Promotes Sexism, Homophobia (more here). In a tradition that goes back to legendary Iowa football coach Hayden Fry, the visiting locker room in the Kinnick Stadium is pink. University of Iowa law [...]
How to Write, by Herbert and Jill Meyer, has been helpful to many writers and English learners for years in paperback. Now it’s available in e-book format for $1.99. Take a look the book William Safire called “the most helpful book the beginning writer can buy.”
Help me out here. Does this work as a meme? 1. Find a blog you don’t read. 2. Go to the third post down. 3. Quote the second sentence from that post along with these instructions and with links to the blog and post. 4. End your post with “Thanks to Collected Miscellany” with the [...]
The New Republic Online has posted a spate of book reviews recently and I thought I might bring them to your attention. I believe some of them require subscription so if you can’t read them in their entirety I apologize. – Howard’s End by Robert Alter looks at Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. Alter finds much [...]
It’s Banned Books Week, so take this opportunity to rant against some book which isn’t worth the paper its printed on. Like the upcoming timewaster by Cindy Sheehan or the flash journalism on Michael Jackson. As G.E.Veith notes, “Liberals today are doing most of the book banning, forbidding the very possession of books on Intelligent [...]
Content has been a bit sparse around here lately. My eyes were bigger than my . . . well, my eyes I guess. I have a stack of books to review and the only way to catch up is dive in and read. This means less posting. But never fear. For those poor souls who [...]
This past weekend was not a good one for me. My favorite college and pro teams lost heart breaking games. to work through my grief I will try to make some sense of these losses. Let’s start with college. Michigan lost to Wisconsin 23-20 Saturday night and fell out of the AP Top 25 Ranking [...]
Copying Ed from yesterday, I will offer this Meme instead of substanative content: 1. Go into your archive. 2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to). 3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. ANSWER: “England’s pork sausages?”