Here’s a radio show I did on KQED’s “Writer’s Block”
“Rodes Fishburne reads a passage from Going to See the Elephant, the story of Slater Brown and his attempt to become the greater writer ever. (Running Time: 10:20)”
The Other Man–Essay
A couple of weeks ago, at three in the morning, I woke up to find my wife in bed with another man. She likes tall men, he was short. She likes broad shoulders, his were narrow. I don’t think I’m offending the parties involved when I say that at 37 pounds he was literally a bit of a lightweight. If it came right down to it, and it might, I was pretty sure I could take him.
Writers are Weird
There, I’ve said it.
Very few other people in the world have the patience, discipline, and flat out strangeness to sit alone for hours at a time in order to live in their heads.
Do you realize there’s an entire category of people in the world who have never lived in their heads? Even for a moment? These are called politicians and they are doing the best they can. continue reading…
Big City Beat
I wrote this story for my friend Hope Strong, the former editor-in-chief of the Teton Valley News in Driggs, Idaho. He asked me for a letter from the big city.
A letter from San Francisco
The other day in San Francisco, on the Fulton 5 municipal bus line, a young black man got on board and hip-rolled his way down the aisle. He was wearing what a lot of adolescents wear these days: pants so big and billowy they could have been hiding a VW beetle inside each leg and a sports jersey underneath a pullover. He had a blue LA Lakers hat on his head, the bill of which was turned sideways in the style that is the style, know what I’m sayin’? continue reading…
The Big Issue
A long time ago, and a very happy time it was, I served as the editor of the “The Big Issue,” an annual magazine that asked leading writers and thinkers, from Tom Wolfe to the Dalai Lama, to write personal essays on provocative themes. One year the theme was “Time,” another, “What is True?” another, “The Pursuit of Happiness.” Suffice to say it was extraordinarily stimulating to be working with such interesting and articulate people. And that was just the staff of Forbes ASAP. continue reading…
