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In case your American Theatre subscription has lapsed, you should know that Daniel Alexander Jones is one of fifteen artists “whose work will be transforming American stages for decades to come.” The Penumbra Theatre Company and Pillsbury House can boast that hip and socially aware works from this young playwright have already been seen on … Read more

Negativland is celebrating its first quarter century in the music business with notoriety, empty pockets, and an art show, of all things. The collective has always lived double lives in the visual and aural worlds. Core members Mark Hosler, Richard Lyons, Don Joyce, and David Wills entertain various fascinations with video, radio mechanical experiments, and … Read more

Dropping Tish Jones off on a deserted island might seem like the height of cruelty; she is anything but solitary. A veteran of the poetry slam circuit, a national scene known for its ultra-social and quite self-confident performers, Jones sometimes even performs her own work in ensemble form. Together with poets Ed Bok Lee, Reggie … Read more

In Calvin Trillin’s world, the secret to living the sweet life is simply making the right choices. And Trillin’s prolific writing career is nothing if not the chronicle of a lifetime of impeccable selections: He’s eaten the best food, lived in the coolest city, traveled to the most interesting places, and had the good fortune … Read more

It seems unfair to brand a writer as talented as Melissa Bank with the increasingly meaningless and disposable “chick lit” label. But there’s no denying that Bank’s Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing, published in 2000, was on the leading edge of an avalanche of thinly veiled romance novels that have since come to dominate … Read more

How tough would it be to juggle careers as a successful visual artist and an accomplished novelist? Mighty tough, one would suppose, although hardly pitiable. Such was the dilemma for Julia Glass, one of those rare people with bankable talent in two art forms. Having already achieved acclaim as a painter and rug hooker, Glass … Read more

It sounds like an easy enough job: Just fill in a little box with some scratchy pictures and a handful of words that will make people laugh. For even the best comic strip artists (i.e. Gary Larson, Bill Watterson, and, most recently, Aaron McGruder), however, it’s apparently hard work with a serious burnout risk. Yet … Read more

With his uncommonly graceful way with words, sharp eye for details, and knack for getting along with just about everybody, John McPhee can write compellingly about virtually any topic. His enormous body of work includes books about oranges, geology, watercraft, basketball, and characters both famous and anything but. In his latest book, the Pulitzer-winning journalist … Read more

I’m missing something. Not like glasses or dignity, things easily mislaid. No, it’s something essential, like a helix of DNA that should have come matched with my two X chromosomes. It’s the handbag gene. I exhibit other double-X-linked traits. For example, I’m exquisitely literate in clothing and shoes. I can identify a handmade buttonhole on … Read more