#americanliterature

(Sex On Wheels?) (Sexual Healing?) You’re so pretty for a girl in a wheelchair. Angelique Vito has to laugh; it’s just one of the more memorable things well-meaning people have said to her.  Oh, it’s so unfortunate you can’t have children.  Oh, you’re such an inspiration.  “They see me in this chair and the thinking […]

I was sitting in my apartment in Bolgona when I got a phone call from Gábor Gyukics, my Hungarian translator. I had been to Hungary several times, and my poems had been included in two anthologies. For a few years now, depending on how busy I’ve been or he’s been, Gábor has tried to set […]

I am terrible at saying “No.” I’m too eager to please, or, more accurately, I am terrified of disappointing people. But it’s more than that. I rarely feel like I have a right to say “no.” And so I say yes to nearly everything or I say nothing and people interpret my silence as consent. […]

Perhaps I should begin by stating that I watch a lot of reality TV. I started early—as a child I watched almost every season of The Real World. The show felt like an urgent missive from a life I desired: young people interacting with other young people in some metropolitan enclave, all of them vibrant […]