The Brooklyn Rail

One of my more significant childhood experiences took place at a leisurely Sunday barbecue, when an employee of my father’s asked his infant: “What does daddy do at Mr. Heinlein’s company?”

In Art as Experience, John Dewey describes form in art as, “the operation of forces that carry the experience of an event, object, scene and situation to its own integral fulfillment.”

Sometimes, a single event can define an entire era, drawing on disparate strands of history to tie them together in a single unforgettable knot.

Watching traffic zoom through the massive, gate-like pillars of the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s hard to believe that for much of New York’s history, this simple, solid landmark was considered a pipe dream, an impossible feat of engineering.

Kiss me and you will see how important I am. This Sylvia Plath line could easily be uttered by any of Rachel Sherman’s characters in her debut collection of short stories The First Hurt.

Recently the Brooklyn Rail met with young-adult author Ned Vizzini in his childhood neighborhood of Park Slope to discuss, among other things, his third book, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, a novel that channels an autobiographical story of suicidal depression through a teenaged narrator.

New York in the summer, with its viscous air and rushing crowds, is so unpleasant that when you finally make it to the beach, you need to make the most of it.

More than thirty years have passed between Bill Zavatsky’s first full-length book, Theories of Rain and Other Poems (1975) and his second full-length book, X Marks the Spot.