Blogs

Half-baked thoughts, then, toward an AWP presentation that won’t be: Jokes, the good Dr. Freud said famously, are often “hostile.” (That, or obscene: the jokes of “exposure.”) ...

croc_mouth_8298_lg I tried to put a panel session together for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference in Atlanta this spring. The topic was going to be humor, which I ...

Once there was a writer for one of America's biggest catalog companies. Perhaps because the young man was a veteran, because he showed up for work, met his deadlines, and wore trendy J.C. Penney ...

A film corollary to my last post, about bad books: The media always reports on how emotionally hard the holidays can be, even while showing consumers joyously throwing their paychecks to grinning ...

globe_24114_lg One of the drawbacks of being in the English Department of a big research university is the climate of machismo. It takes several forms, but it’s especially evident in the way ...

Some experiences don’t last long enough for satisfaction. You know what I’m talking about—cream soda numbs the tongue to its own silky sweetness, so you get a couple of tasty sips, then ...

And great good luck to all our friends looking for jobs on the academic market this year.

Yesterday I went to the session on Literary Studies in the Public Sphere. For two of the speakers, Amardeep Singh and Michael Bérubé, public meant Bloggic. I felt great personal warmth for Singh ...

Thanks to loyal readers who suggested things to do in Philadelphia while I’m here at the Modern Language Association Conference; you’ve taken me at my word that this blog is meant to be the ...

My name is Oronte Churm, and I teach at a large state university. Over the last year, I’ve written about my experiences in a series of dispatches for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. The ...