In 2001, when I was seven, I asked my first-grade teacher (a sugar-sweet, angel-on-earth woman named Sister Mary William) why 9/11 happened. She told me, “Because some people don’t have the love of Jesus in their hearts.” “It made a lot of sense to you,” my mom recalled later. Then she added, “At the …
One part, but not the only part, of creativity is something airy and fragile. The muses are picky, and they visit only in very particular circumstances. In the book, The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche classified this more emotional, passionate, fickle side of the creative process as “Dionysian,” named for and represented by Dionysus, the …
In 2021, Vauhini Vara published an essay called “Ghosts.” In “Ghosts,” she used an early model of ChatGPT to help her write a story about her older sister’s untimely death: something that, she admits, she was never really able to write about on her own. She writes an introduction, then she copies her conversation with …
Part I I grew up in a pretty small town, and as a kid, I always wanted to get out. I was curious, energetic, imaginative. I wanted adventures like the kids in The Magic Treehouse and Gregor the Overlander. But as soon as I had the chance to get away from home, I …
On March 27th, The Cut published an essay called “The Case for Marrying an Older Man” by Grazie Sophia Christie. In the essay, the writer explains that she realized in undergrad at Harvard that her “fiercest advantage” as a woman was her youth. She argues that she leveraged her youth to seduce and marry an …
Editor Reviews “The Case for Marrying an Older Man” Leer más »
When I was around eleven or twelve, I was old enough to understand the inevitability of death but young enough that I still prayed. I remember telling God that I knew he would someday have to take my grandparents to heaven, but I asked that he please not do so until I was old enough …
Isa never really knew her mother. She was, in fact, separated from her mother as a child after a traumatic event, and they haven’t spoken since then. Isa always thought there would be time to repair the relationship. But then Isa receives a letter from her mother, who explains that if Isa is reading the …
Trigger warning: this essay contains mentions of sexual assault, rape, and violence. Two asterisks (**) indicate that the name has been changed to protect the privacy of those mentioned. Author’s Note: Choosing to publish this was not a decision I took lightly. I wrote it as a form of catharsis, but I was very …
The Superlatives is a play about extremes. Considering it’s based on the world’s most famous book of facts, it’s fitting that the play got its start from a fun fact: The people who created the Guinness Book of World Records were identical twins with photographic memories. One of them was assassinated by the Irish Republican …
This Free Play is Perfect for a Large Cast of Students Leer más »
It’s time for the U.S. to join other parts of the world in learning that there are six continents, not seven. When you were in school, how many continents did you learn that there are? If you’re American like me, you probably learned that there are seven continents: North America South America Europe Africa Asia …
You Should Have Learned that There are Six Continents Leer más »