writing gallery

The Snakehead: The criminal odyssey of Chinatown’s Sister Ping

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:30:06 -0500

The Snakehead: The criminal odyssey of Chinatown’s Sister Ping:

Moving people illegally from one country to another requires an extensive network of international contacts and an ability to outwit immigration and law-enforcement officers. With a well-connected family, acute entrepreneurial instincts, and a callous, life-is-cheap attitude toward the poor migrants who were her customers, Sister Ping was well suited to the job. Working with associates in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Belize, Kenya, South Africa, Guatemala, Mexico, and Canada, she helped create the China-to-Chinatown route in the early nineteen-eighties and ushered thousands of undocumented Chinese emigrants to America. According to the F.B.I., over the course of two decades she made some forty million dollars.

Proper Spelling? Its Tyme to Let Luce!

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:30:06 -0500

Proper Spelling? Its Tyme to Let Luce!:

Why receipt but deceit? Water but daughter? Daughter but laughter? What is the logic behind the ough in through, dough, and cough? Instead of trying to get the letters right with imperfect tools, it would be far better to loosen our idea of correct spelling.

Listening to Books

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:19:18 -0500

Listening to Books:

When a New York Times reporter asked Harold Bloom a couple of years ago what he thought of audio books, the great Yale humanist told her that “deep reading really demands the inner ear as well as the outer ear.” It requires, he continued, the use of “that part of you which is open to wisdom. You need the text in front of you.” This sounds to me somewhat peculiar, but a lot of people basically agree with it. They believe that whatever part of you is “open to wisdom” is a part that can be activated only through the eyes. Unless, of course, you are blind. In which case everything is obviously completely totally different.

How to be a faster writer

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:30:06 -0500

How to be a faster writer:

“Professional Writing Expertise,” by Ronald Kellogg, contains enough writerly insight to fuel a thousand Iowa workshops. And the opening words could not be more comforting: “Writing extended texts for publication is a major cognitive challenge, even for professionals who compose for a living.” See, Dad! This is hard work.

Readers' Africa: Back on track

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:30:06 -0500

Readers' Africa: Back on track:

On January 2 1958, I departed from Cape Town railway station to take up an appointment with the colonial government in what was then Zomba, Nyasaland.

Magic Journalism

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

Magic Journalism:

If the work of contemporary Latin American novelists, sprinkled with trees that move and birds that talk, is magic realism, Kapuscinski, a Pole, has created a kind of magic journalism.

What Would the End of Football Look Like?: An economic perspective on CTE and the concussion crisis

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:30:06 -0500

What Would the End of Football Look Like?: An economic perspective on CTE and the concussion crisis:

People — American people — might actually start calling “soccer” by the moniker of “football.”

Transfer deadline day: Oh what a circus

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:30:06 -0500

Transfer deadline day: Oh what a circus:

The entire day is testimony to Sky’s creativity, a street party in celebration of destabilising uber‑commerce erected on the very fringes of a firewall designed to prevent destabilising uber‑commerce, like cold war Moscow street capitalists doing a roaring black market trade in Red Army bearskin hats.

Story of Langston Hughes Meeting Jacques Roumain

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

Story of Langston Hughes Meeting Jacques Roumain:

“I arose from my table on the cargo batch, wiped my hands on my trousers, and was introduced by Roumain as “the greatest Negro poet who had ever come to honor Haitian soil.” Each man bowed gravely. I bowed too.

At Last, The South Loses Well

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:30:06 -0500

At Last, The South Loses Well:

So, South Carolina? Make the repetition a memory. Heed the orders of General Lee. On retiring from the field of battle, brave enough to weep in plain view of his men, admitting defeat while somehow maintaining his own indelible sense of human honor, he called back, “Furl the flag, boys.”

Southern food, beyond the butter

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:30:06 -0500

Southern food, beyond the butter:

Southern food is a celebration of the people within the community, using the agrarian bounty that is constantly around them. It pays homage to the past but is a constantly evolving, ebbing with the seasons and flowing with the constant progression of the South.

Stumptown Girl: An indie-rock star satirizes hipster culture, on “Portlandia.”

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

Stumptown Girl: An indie-rock star satirizes hipster culture, on “Portlandia.”:

Even worse, she said, was “the élitism that passes itself off as inclusiveness.” She went on, “The rules are so esoteric, so hard to follow, that no one else could fit in. And what you’ll never admit to yourself is that you don’t want other people to fit in.” That’s a good summation of what “Portlandia” lampoons.

How to change your view of Africa

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

How to change your view of Africa:

“You are not writing about the white man. That’s not the person you grew up with. This is not the person I have a beef with. The guy I have a beef with is the shebeen owner.” And so he has found African writers, Francophone and Anglophone, still living in Africa, who write mostly about a lower-middle-class Africa that almost never gets described.

How to be a dictator

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

How to be a dictator:

It’s much better to decide who gets to eat than to let the people feed themselves. If you lower taxes people will do more work, but then people will get rewards that aren’t coming through you. Everything good must come through you.

His Music Rules in Haiti

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

His Music Rules in Haiti:

Sitting at the bar at the Spirit, Champagne emphasizes Martelly’s ability to attract fans across the political and social spectrum. “Sweet Micky is the only one who brings everyone together,” he claims. “I don’t care if you are from the slums of Cite Soleil or from Petionville; Sweet Micky brings everyone together in peace and they enjoy his music.”

Africa Cup of Nations 2012: Mali's heroes weep for a nation at war

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

Africa Cup of Nations 2012: Mali's heroes weep for a nation at war:

Often tears on a football pitch feel self-indulgent, the spoiled multimillionaire brat bawling because he’s missed out on yet another medal. Here, though, as the fans who remained gently applauded, it was easy to have sympathy for a man who clearly felt he had let his country down—and a country that will probably never have a better chance to win the Cup of Nations. Who can imagine the pressure when the president’s wife wears your shirt?

Football Season is Over

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:30:06 -0500

Football Season is Over:

No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming.

The Pitfalls of Indie Fame: On tUnE-yArDs and the perils of critical adoration

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

The Pitfalls of Indie Fame: On tUnE-yArDs and the perils of critical adoration:

“Hey, remember that one winter when we all thought tUnE-yArDs was supposed to be brilliant? That fucking puppeteer? Were we all high at the same time? What was wrong with us?”

At Lunch With Raoul Peck: Exporting Haitian Culture to the World

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:30:06 -0500

At Lunch With Raoul Peck: Exporting Haitian Culture to the World:

“It’s important for me to show Haitians as human beings and not just as objects,” he continued. “We have a very heavy legacy in that we are seen as either voodoo followers or AIDS carriers. The least I can do is show people as people and not as marionettes or exotic bodies.”

Football’s best managers: A look into club accounts reveals some unexpected top performers among football managers

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:30:05 -0500

Football’s best managers: A look into club accounts reveals some unexpected top performers among football managers:

Football managers are modern celebrities, yet the vast majority appear to add no value to their teams, and could probably be replaced by their secretaries or stuffed teddy bears without anyone noticing.