Life is In a Spin

Passing
Nella Larsen

Fifteen or so years ago I found myself on Main Street in downtown Flushing, NY at midday. The sidewalks were filled with crowds, some jostling their way between errands, some in search of lunch.

It’s an experience I can recommend because Flushing, which in my childhood had Jewish and Italian enclaves, is nowadays more than 50% Asian. To be in a crowd and be

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Sweet and Lovely

Cane
Jean Toomer

A not unexpected confession: I cut corners. All that makes me is human because we all cut corners; there’s no other way to get through the day.

That doesn’t mean I don’t feel guilty about doing it. So I compensate and that compensation is nowhere more evident than in how I fill in the gaps in my education. The unread backlog is huge and time is not infinite. What to read? What to omit? How to choose?

Such questions can tie one up in knots. And, circularity be damned, the best way I know to avoid knots is with shortcuts.

Here’s one shortcut I take in filling in the literary gaps: if some editor thought a