Category Archives: Writing

Worst Book Ever

Posted on April 24, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Belief and Technique for Modern Prose

Posted on April 23, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Like many adolescents of my generation who had aspirations to engage in a literary life, I was infatuated with the Beat Generation writers. And while I sussed early on that the Jack Kerouac on the page might not be all … Continue reading →

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Calmly we walk through this April’s day

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

CALMLY WE WALK THROUGH THIS APRIL’S DAY Delmore Schwartz Calmly we walk through this April’s day, Metropolitan poetry here and there, In the park sit pauper and rentier, The screaming children, the motor-car Fugitive about us, running away, Between the worker … Continue reading →

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Personal Anthologies

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

For the last five years, the writer Jonathan Gibbs has curated a project called A Personal Anthology, where guest editors provide a dozen short story selections. Sometimes the anthologies are Greatest Hits, sometimes they’re personal favorites or central to the … Continue reading →

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“LIBRARIAN – HAPPY EASTER X”

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

“LIBRARIAN – HAPPY EASTER X”, just  three words and a signature X was all it took to once again open one of Britain’s most intriguing literary mysteries of the 21st century. In November 2000, a pair of notebooks belonging to … Continue reading →

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The Conjure-Man Dies

Posted on April 12, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

“The Conjure-Man Dies” is a product of the Harlem Renaissance and the most important work of long-overlooked writer Rudolph Fisher. First published in 1932, the book was the first full-length mystery novel to feature an all-Black cast of characters, including … Continue reading →

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Be angry at the sun for setting

Posted on April 9, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

BE ANGRY AT THE SUN Robinson Jeffers That public men publish falsehoods Is nothing new. That America must accept Like the historical republics corruption and empire Has been known for years. Be angry at the sun for setting If these … Continue reading →

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In-flight Entertainment

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

On this date in 1925, the first in-flight film was shown on an airplane on an Imperial Airways flight. The film was The Lost World, one of the first science-fiction films. Based on a 1912 Arthur Conan Doyle novel, it … Continue reading →

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Fear and Loathing in America

Posted on April 4, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

I have long been a fan of the outrageous gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. More recently I found myself binge watching the television show Succession which stars the great Scotish actor Brian Cox. So I was tickled to stumble on the … Continue reading →

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Orwell, Animal Farm and Ukraine

Posted on March 30, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

In 1946, Ihor Szewczenko ,who was a linguist who had been editing pocket-sized Ukrainian-English dictionaries for refugees in displaced persons camps in Germany, wrote to George Orwell requesting permission to translate Animal Farm into Ukrainian. He explained that his Ukrainian … Continue reading →

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