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You’ve Been Fictionalized!

We’re out until January 5, but we’re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2014 while we’re away. We hope you enjoy—and have a happy New Year! * Is this really what you think of me? The shock of...

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The Art of Paños, and Other News

Photo: Reno Leplat-Torti / Paños Chicanos, via Vice Wackford Squeers, Peg Sliderskew, Charity Pecksniff … the names of characters in Dickens novels are outré enough to put Thomas Pynchon to shame....

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Sorry, Judy

Judy doesn’t even deserve this picnic. I recently had a thought while reading Marjory Hall’s A Picnic for Judy, a YA book from 1955. The premise was promising: a young woman is forced to move with her...

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What Kind of Name Is That?

How to name your fictional characters. Characters in need of names. To me the most embarrassing part of writing fiction, aside from telling people about it, is naming your characters. Of course, even...

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Getting to Know Professor Bhaer, Part 1

He isn’t old, nor anything bad, but good and kind, and the best friend I’ve got next to you. Pray don’t fly into a passion; I want to be kind, but I know I shall get angry if you abuse my Professor. I...

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A Boy with No Birthday Turns Sixty

The long and tangled history of Alfred E. Neuman. Postcard that later inspired Norman Mingo’s, Alfred E. Neuman. In a 1975 interview with the New York Times, MAD Magazine founder Harvey Kurtzman...

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Brief Encounter

“Polite New Yorker” Guess who I ran into this morning? Three guesses. And if you guessed Jacob, my neighborhood friend, you’re right!  I was enjoying a toasted, buttered bialy, a coffee-cart small, and...

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What Our Contributors Are Reading This Fall

In place of our staff picks this week, we’ve asked five contributors from our new Fall issue to write about what they’re reading.  From Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard. After...

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What Kind of Name Is That?

We’re away until January 3, but we’re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2016. Enjoy your holiday! Characters in need of names. How to name your fictional characters.   To me the most...

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The Crying Cat

Amparo Dávila’s translator discovers the truth behind her fiction. Amparo Dávila.   The stories of the Mexican author Amparo Dávila intrude on “external reality” in unnerving ways. To illustrate, I’ll...

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