Here are true tales from the writer’s life, as well as essays and wild meditations.
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 526. “Do You Like to Exercise?” “Yo, bro, can we work in a set with you?” “Yuh, jus give me a sec.” We’re in the downtown YMCA stepping down from the […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 513. “What’s Your Favorite T-Shirt?” Ode to my favorite shirt: “Follow me to EL COSMICO,” it says, and features some Hindu divinities (Vishnu with a pair of Laxmis). They ride an orange and […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 502. “How Has Travel Affected You?” Out past my window I see the World Trade Center tower, red brick warehouses, and two stacks of smoke, a New York City skyline glowing gray and […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 483. “Does Being a Fan Help Define Who You Are?” “No se cambia la camiseta.” My uncle taught me that you can’t change your jersey. Sometimes you pick it, sometimes you are […]
(Blurry, soft image taken as a screen shot from Disclosure — “You & Me” Flume Remix video on Youtube) In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 471. “Have You Ever Been In Love?” What am I going to say, […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 461. “Do You Have a Best Friend?” If I could, I would make an edifice to friendship: a big round stone carved like an emoji, with a hundred different faces, each of the […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 2:31 PM. Brooklyn cafe, big windows. Lots of sunlight, rain and snow flakes. A friend of mine commented on a guy she likes and said he only concerns himself with his work. “I want […]
(*Borrowed lines from Reality Hunger, by David Shields) In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 434. “What Personal Essay Topic Would You Assign to College Applicants?” *In antiquity, the most common Latin term for the essay was experior, meaning “to […]
(“En el fondo lo único que ha dicho es que nadie sabe nade de nadie, y no es una novedad. Toda biografía da eso por supuesto y sigue adelante, que diablos. Vamos Johnny, vamos a casa que es tarde.” — Cortázar, El Perseguidor; lo mismo se puede decir de una […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 410. “Have Your Ever Been Humiliated by a Teacher? How Did it Affect You?” I normally did not do my homework, but this time I had. In pre-Calculus we were assigned homework […]
(Feature photo: “The Guidonian Hand,” a mnemonic device to aid the learning of sight singing; a precursor of Tonic Sol-fa; devised by the Guido di Arezzo.) In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 403. “What Would You Like To Have Memorized?” […]
(Art by John Millar Watt; “Why, oh my, Madam School Year, the pleasure is all mine.”) In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 375. “What Are You Looking Forward To, or Dreading, This School Year?” This is my last year […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 353. “What Words Do You Hate?” The Cambridge University Press textbook we use to teach English to intermediate students has a list of the top 500 most used words in the English language. […]
(Image taken from “La cueva de las manos,” the Cave of Hands in Santa Cruz, Argentina: a site which would look like an act of vandalism, or the product of a children’s arts and crafts class, unless carbon-dated to 10,000 years ago.) In response to The New York Times […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 346. “What is Your Most Memorable Writing Assignment?” In eleventh grade our English teacher assigned us a 20 page paper due at the end of the month. “On anything you want,” she answered […]
(Feature Image: Henry Miller Memorial Library) In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 323. “What Are the Best Books You’ve Read This Year?” Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (art by Tzviatko Kinchev) Reading this novel, for Professor James Lasdun’s “Form […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 315. “What Are Your Favorite Video Games?” The games that took up a lot of my youth were the massive-multiplayer-online-role-playing types like Tibia, Ragnarok, and Age of Empires, which were all fantasy, and […]
(Art pulled from El Tiempo) In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 306. “What Movies Do You Watch, or Reference, Over and Over?” Cinema is an art form meant to be enjoyed in groups, and referenced thereafter. Music can […]
(Cover image pulled from Oliver Russell) In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 290. “What Are the Best Things You’ve Watched, Read, Heard or Played This Year?” Should you ask, I will say there are many “bests.” I am the […]
In response to The New York Times article “650 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.” 277. “What Are You Listening To?” https://soundcloud.com/begun/bearoid-at-your-funeral-begun-remix “Listen to this,” my buddy Andrew said, handing me his right headphone piece. The plane had taken off moments before. From the window you could see […]