Dear Anya

Thank you for your cool list of queries which I saw after I got back from vacation at Blue-Eye, Missouri! I will start  with an easy one:  “Favorite Book”— The Brothers Karamazovby Fyodor Dostoevskyas translated by…

Two Alyoshas

Dostoevsky’s—There was something in him that told one, that convinced one (and it was so all his life afterwards) that he did not want to be a judge of men, that he would not take…

A Basic Seventeen

November 1999 “And so, first of all, let us remember him, gentlemen, all our lives.  And even though we may be involved with the most important affairs, achieve distinction or fall into some great misfortune…

Zosima-isms/2

Which of the two is more capable of upholding and serving a great idea—the isolated rich man or one who is liberated from the tyranny of things and habits? Let us preserve the image of…

Zosima-isms/1

This is the lot that befalls you, mothers, on earth. And do not be comforted, you should not be comforted, do not be comforted, but weep. And there is more joy in heaven over one…

Mentshes/5

Sign Up by Lindsey Trout Hughes Hi, Mark! I hope this note finds you well. I saw your post last week about the spring writing course. I asked Katie Consamus over coffee if she’d like…

The Irresistible Power of Natural Powers

Having recently perused Jim Forest’s biography and memoir of Dan Berrigan (Playing in the Lions’ Den), I returned to Berrigan’s collection of poems, And the Risen Bread. If I can find five poems in such…

In Praise of Sentimental Slop

Back in the late 90s, when the spring semester ended, and the grades had been turned in, I’d treat myself with another reading of Dostoevsky’s magisterial The Brothers Karamazov.  I’ve lost track of how many…