Post AWP Buzz: Dunn and Hoagland and Rankine
The end of AWP (Associated Writers and Writing Programs Conference) is always charged, and certain events stand out: two that did this year are, first, The Stephen Dunn Tribute (disclaimer: I ran it)...
View ArticleBad Writing, defined
Take a minute to parse this out: “Bad art is that which does not succeed in cleansing the language of its dead — stinking dead — usages of the past.” I’m sure that within the right context — a graduate...
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A misplaced medias
While attending the Association of Writers and Writing Programs 2011 conference in Washington, DC, I grew angry at the commercialization of—like everything else—literature, the fetishization of...
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Toni Morrison’s $30,000 payday
By now you’ve probably heard about Toni Morrison’s next big speaking engagement: the commencement address at Rutgers University in New Jersey. The Nobel Laureate will receive $30,000 and an honorary...
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MANENO — a few words on the making of Stone Town’s monthly poetry reading series
The waters between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. Where were all the poets and writers in Zanzibar? Where were those wordsmiths hiding? Throughout my first year in Zanzibar, I may have been living inside...
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Readers rescue us
[capti on id=”attachment_2694″ align=”alignright” width=”300″ caption=”By fox_kiyo via flickr”][/caption] When we published the summer issue of Contrary two days ago, we had less than $2 in the bank....
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The writing life, or, reckoning with poverty
There is a moment in Louis Malle’s excellent 1981 film My Dinner With Andre that has stuck with me since I first saw the movie almost 20 years ago. Wallace Shawn, playing himself, is on his way to meet...
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Where should a writer live?
Years ago, I saw Tom Waits in concert. Between two songs, he said something that’s stuck with me ever since: “It’s not that the world is overpopulated,” he said. “It’s just that everyone wants to live...
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Elaine’s and the New York I barely knew
I never had a chance to go to Elaine’s, the famous writers’ haven on the Upper East Side that closed in 2011. But I know its kitschy decor, its tightly packed dining rooms, and even its pay phone....
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Changing Stories, Stories for Change
We know a good story can change us. But can our stories really change society? Writers, poets, journalists, arts educators, and cultural activists based in and around Dar es Salaam, Tanzania convened...
View ArticleContrary Poet Wins Ex Ophidia Prize
Excuse our French, but our raison d’etre is to support young writers, so we were cheered to receive this news from Ben Admussen: “Contrary was the first journal to publish Karina Borowicz, many years...
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