Robert Wexelblatt is professor of humanities at Boston University’s College of General Studies. He has published seven fiction collections, Life in the Temperate Zone, The Decline of Our Neighborhood, The Artist Wears Rough Clothing, Heiberg’s Twitch, Petites Suites, Intuition of the News and Hsi-wei Tales; two books of essays, Professors at Play and The Posthumous Papers of Sidney Fein; two short novels, Losses and The Derangement of Jules Torquemal; two books of verse, Fifty Poems and Girl Asleep; essays, stories, and poems in a variety of scholarly and literary journals, and the novel Zublinka Among Women, awarded the Indie Book Awards first prize for fiction.
“They called her the Tenth Muse.” “What’s a muse?” “Um. Well, it’s a goddess who inspires writers, artists, dancers, poets—you know, that sort of thing. The inspired people were almost all male, of course. I supposed they liked the idea of female assistance.” “But she wasn’t a goddess, was she?” “No. And not really…
THE IM/IM PODCAST 1. – Arthur Havens? – On the line. – Pardon me. He’s on another line? – Sorry. It’s what my father always said. You know, when the call was for him and he answered it. What do you say? – When? – When you pick up and somebody says your name…
What to wear? I had gone to bed to escape the question, and more serious ones, too. When I woke—too early, nervous, excited—I had to smile. Worrying about my clothes? Apart from my street-bought J’Aime Paris sweatshirt and old gray sweatpants I had only two options, the purple dress and the black, neither what…
“Oh, oh! Those schoolgirl knees! But, ech! the filthy whore… Fire, Fire! Capuchins! Coco Coco! Fascist fire in the gutters!” The puke-green digits on my little clock-radio declared it was, once again, the dark night of the soul. How does that withered thorax generate so many decibels? Fire! The word shattered my sleep. For…
I’m a Midwestern girl, born and raised in Zionsville, a suburb of Indianapolis. I’m still in Indiana, working on a master’s degree at IU’s Jacobs School of Music. I was an undergraduate at the University too, with a double major in Music and French. I’m like a lot of my kind—that is, highly educated…
When Philippe summoned me to his office, I figured I was in hot water over my last feature. Perhaps the Minister of Education had complained about my choice of adjectives or, worse, turned up some inaccuracy. I grabbed my notes. “No, no complaints from on high,” said Philippe. “Not yet, at least. No, I’ve…
