Emily Rapp

Last year marked my first on the job market as a teacher of creative writing. I spent most of the fall in rural Pennsylvania sending out hundreds of resumes and cover letters, watching wistfully as beautiful red, gold, and yellow … Read More

Current Conditions BY EMILY RAPP ast May, I gleefully barreled out of Austin on a humid afternoon, relieved to avoid another blistering Texas summer. Having finished my writing degree (but not my novel), I was headed northeast and would eventually … Read More

Charles Baxter is the highly acclaimed author of seven works of fiction (including The Feast of Love, Believers, Harmony of the World, Through the Safety Net), a book of poetry (Imaginary Paintings), and a collection of essays about fiction (Burning … Read More

On March 1998, I helped organize an NGO-sponsored conference for young Africans. As they traveled from various countries, their journeys across borders were never without complications. From my office in Geneva I wrangled for visas, while from Zimbabwe, South Africa, … Read More

In Sweetbitter, the lovely and ambitious first novel by acclaimed poet and short fiction writer Reginald Gibbons, early 20th-century Texas comes to vivid, violent life. The town of Three Rivers in rural East Texas is a harsh world where white … Read More