Stephen Sondheim was taken from us in late 2021, but since his posthumous cameo in Glass Onion, the wildly uneven follow-up to Knives...

There are things you assume you know— the waves of emotion, the choice of conflagration or inhumation, the cavern in your heart. But...

Influences on writers don’t have to be writers, do they? As I went down the rabbit hole of thinking about influences on my life and work,...

We were in a critical writing class at Bennington College, circa 2003, and a student was reading a paper that celebrated the then...

Do you ever overhear yourself thinking? Let me put that another way before you click to another site. The late literary critic Harold...

On May 16, 2021, over one hundred family members and friends gathered at the Sumiton Community Center in Walker County, Alabama, for a...

I get into obsessions. After weeks of reading Browning’s poetry, I’ll switch to Sondheim and there will be weeks of listening, humming,...

Everyone has apprentice plays. Most people don’t know Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams wrote dozens of plays (rarely performed now)...

I can remember being as young as six and needing books around me constantly, though I wasn't sure I could read well. I liked books, the...

Greetings as we ring out the old and ring in the new! I want to thank those of you who have supported the new website and Facebook page...

Just in time for Christmas, I share with you my top 10 Christmas movies. This, and other lists, can be found in the Hardcover or...

One of my favorite books growing up was Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. Maltin is a highly influential film critic for writing only capsule...

For the last few weeks, I've been sharing my favorite works of art. These were not necessarily my answers to "What is the best movie/tv...

For the next few weeks, I'll be sharing my favorite works of art. These are not necessarily my answers to "What is the best movie/tv...

For the next few weeks, I'll be sharing my favorite works of art. These are not necessarily my answers to "What is the best movie/tv...

For the next few weeks, I'll be sharing my favorite works of art. These are not necessarily my answers to "What is the best movie/tv...

For the next few weeks, I'll be sharing my favorite works of art. These are not necessarily my answers to "What is the best movie/tv...

From age 13 to 17, I was a church musician and I often miss it. It's not every adult choir director who would let a teenager play in his...

A few weeks ago now, I attended Divine Liturgy at an Eastern Orthodox Cathedral in Birmingham. There was about an hour and a half of...

I tried to understand cats for years. The animals, I mean. I’m such an animal lover now that most people would be horrified to know I was...