Editor’s Note

Even its name lends itself to rhapsodic obsession. Who could resist its melodic hiss, the way its very origin—to try—seems to encapsulate everything about the c... Continue Reading...

In Defense of Navel-Gazing

Desirae Matherly Overheard or read, the word feels like a dropped gauntlet. Even when wrapped in the self-effacement widely considered “objective,” the m... Continue Reading...

On The Interactive Digital Lyric

Steven Wingate 1. Parallel Evolutions in Experiential Narrative The idea that a single issue of a magazine can give rise to a fresh literary form is fam... Continue Reading...

The Ghost Essay of Custer County: Solomon Butcher’s Photographs of the Sod House

Lucy Schiller 1. Eureka For a full week in the spring of 1866, Solomon Butcher was consumed, obsessed with an idea, and that obsession manifested itself... Continue Reading...

On Paper, Didot, and Sadness

Joshua Unikel There’s often a silence set between essayists and designers. The same goes for essayists and visual artists, even those working in text art... Continue Reading...

Bodies of Text: On the Lyric Essay

Amy Bonnaffons 1. THE WHITE SPACES Suppose you want to write, in prose, about a slippery subject that refuses definition. Something like water, or the... Continue Reading...

Hydra: I’ll be Your Mirror

David Lazar When I think of hybrids, I think of the Hydra from Jason and the Argonauts In 1963  I saw my first motion picture at the Albermarle Theater i... Continue Reading...

Essaying the Plains

Karen Babine The story of the Great Plains is the story of movement, the story of Plains tribes and buffalo, the story of horse masters and dog masters, ... Continue Reading...

An Interview With Matthew Gavin Frank

Mathew Gavin Frank is an essayist, poet, and a former professional chef. His most recent books of prose are The Mad Feast (2015), a collection of lyric essays m... Continue Reading...