Authenticity, Again

The newly redesigned Luna Park did a beautiful redesign of my essay on Race and Authenticity:

http://lunaparkreview.com/questions-of-authenticity/

David Backer also referenced my comments to the Luna Park Editor, Travis Kurowski, concerning Amy Hempel from last month. I wasn't trying to give Mr. Backer a hard time-- it's just "Reasons to Live," is one of my very favorite collections of stories, and "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried," is a famous, and wonderful story that I felt deserved due respect.

My new piece on the suprising fate of Jacqueline:

I came upon the blackened shell of her house, nothing left but rubble and burnt scraps of tin and the open sky beyond.

Listening to Leo London at The Rumpus

My piece on Eugene songwriter Leo London is live at The Rumpus!

"If you took the love child of Dylan and Patti Smith, conceived under a full moon with Waits howling somewhere out of sight, and raised him to twenty-four in a dark cathedral with only a guitar and drum set and organ at the altar and the pews were a bar where the drinks were plentiful and cheap and beautiful, sad, hard-drinking women congregated to worship songs sure to break anew every broken heart you might have a songwriter like Leo..."