Prayers of the Unfaithful

Prayers of the Unfaithful

This Sunday, like all Sundays, in another mass I will not be attending, there is a space of prayer between the creed and the offering of bread and wine. Catholics call this the Prayers of the Faithful. A man has had surgery. Someone’s baby died. A priest has gone away...
American Prison: Beyond the Binge-Watch

American Prison: Beyond the Binge-Watch

If the success of Orange Is the New Black offers any indication, it seems fair (and gross) to say that prison has become “pop”—for a Twitter moment, anyway. Even the cover of the Economist June 20-24 proclaims, “Jailhouse Nation: 2.3 million reasons to fix America’s...
Love and Mercy, Not Blood and Bullets

Love and Mercy, Not Blood and Bullets

For almost four years now, as I’ve completed a second book, 1966 has weighed heavily on my mind. Maybe you were born that year, or one of your siblings was. Maybe you got married then, or your parents did. Perhaps you graduated, or got drafted. Maybe you lost...

The Next Big Thing

Thanks to Donna Hilbert author of the new poetry collection The Congress of Luminous Bodies (Aortic Books) for tagging me in THE NEXT BIG THING What is the title or working title of your book? Tripwires and Trigger Fingers. Where did the idea come from for the book?...