Monthly Archives: August 2014

Munro’s Strategies for Emotional Survivial

By Robin Bates | Published: August 22, 2014

Alice Munro’s wondrous fiction looks at how we both cling to and feel suffocated by monotony.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 21, 2014

Richard Shelton’s poem “Death” reminds us that we are part of the world that we are destroying.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 20, 2014

In this Scott Bates parable, one can get pushed around only so much before turning to rebellion.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 19, 2014

Flannery O’Connor couldn’t stand Ayn Rand. With good reason.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 18, 2014

A James Baldwin short story helps explain some of the fears that led to police overreaction in Ferguson, Missouri.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 17, 2014

Henry Vaughan’s “The Retreat” believes that children have a special connection with eternity.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 16, 2014

NASCAR driver Tony Stewart killing fellow driver Kevin Ward is like something out of a Eugene O’Neill play.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 15, 2014

Knowing that surrealist painter René Magritte loved Edgar Allan Poe explains a lot about his work.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 14, 2014

Robin Williams gave us one of cinema’s greatest depictions of a literature teacher.