Monthly Archives: August 2015

“You are a coward as well as a snob and a tyrant, Atticus.”

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Kate Stover

Much has been written about Atticus’s moral compromises in Go Set a Watchman, which might remove him from the list of “Best Dads in American Literature.” However, what I find more remarkable is Scout’s courage to reject the views of … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Your job is to find what the world is trying to be.”

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Kate Stover

This is the last line from the poem “Vocation” by one of my favorite poets, William Stafford. He was an advocate of the process of discovery. In Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, he writes, “A writer is not so much someone … Continue reading →

Posted in poetry | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.”

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Kate Stover

The power of this final sharp sentence in the essay “The Santa Ana” by Joan Didion comes, in part, from the preceding sentence’s beautiful set-up: “Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and just as the reliably … Continue reading →

Posted in non-fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“The light tastes like laughter.”

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Kate Stover

This metaphor is simple, and yet it packs a punch. It’s from the poem “The Town Where I Belong” in Faith Shearin‘s new collection Telling the Bees. Part of its power comes from the way three of the five senses … Continue reading →

Posted in poetry | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment