What is an ‘essay’?
Over at the Brevity blog, we have this:
Brevity editor Dinty W. Moore is pleased to have published what he believes to be the shortest essay ever, in the new Mississippi Review.
Of Dinty Moore’s piece, Mike Scalise sincerely asks “can someone please explain to me, in sober, clear, and intelligent terms, what makes ‘I have a tendency towards glibness’ an ‘essay’?”
In the introduction to the issue, Jane Hamilton explains in postive/negative terms:
To the right of zero, we have “essay,” “hybrid” and “lyric”—positive terms, assertions of form in the absence of form. But as the works collected here demonstrate, these terms describe forays to the left side of the number line, attempts to fill in the lacunae of memory, find the truth in untruth or half-truth, to compensate for the limitations of language and labels. In these poetic non-poems and narrative non-stories, we can see what I’ve always suspected to be true—the real action is in front of zero.
What do you think, marmot?
(TOC here)
Moustaches for DC Children
not mike scalise
I’ve already talked a little bit about the Capitol Letters Writing Center project in DC, so this shouldn’t be too confusing. Basically, the latest news is this: the staff/volunteers are growing moustaches for the month of March to get donations for the Writing Center. These donations will go towards helping the Writing Center accomplish its mission of offering free workshops and tutoring programs to DC students, much like what the 826 centers and the folks at Badgerdog Literary Publishing do.
Friend Mike Scalise is trying to grow a moustache – if he can get $10 from fourteen people, he will have met his goal for the project: $137.23. If you’d like to sponsor his facial hair, or the facial hair of any other volunteer, visit the Capitol Letters Donation page.
Thank you.