Category: Personal

Postseason Baseball in Seattle

Today the Mariners swept their wildcard series to move on to the American League Division Series. The last time the Mariners made it to the postseason, I had just started my MFA at a college that would close a few…

2016 in Review

The last half of 2016 almost seems like a different year from the first. It is that the resurgence of rightwing populism was sudden but that the power it has amassed became suddenly undeniable. The danger no longer looms: it…

Year-End Review

One of the things I love about an academic life is how many chances for reflection, renewal, and rebirth there are. Each term is a chance for rebirth, and we also get the rhythms of the calendar year. It is following…

Mr. Spock’s Strange Path—And Mine

  When I woke up to Leonard Nimoy, Spock, Vulcan, Wrath of Khan, and #StarTrek trending on Twitter, I knew what had happened. Now there is a sentence that would have made no sense in those years when Spock was so important…

Manifesto(cean)

If I can wake up every morning and face the fallen world with an open heart, even if I know that it will hurt, If I can bring an open heart to a world in which educated people would rather…