Literature

Living Madly: Natural Wonders By Emilie-Noelle Provost Looking directly at the sun for more than a few seconds will damage your retina. Because I didn’t have protective glasses to wear during the solar eclipse on April 8, I used the camera on my phone to watch the moon gradually overtake…

Alison By David Daniel At six p.m. the bar in the hotel lobby in Montego Bay is already busy, revelers tuning up to ring in the New Year. Passing, carrying my suitcase and a large gym bag, I hear someone call my name. Carl and Babs, a couple I got…

Starting Baseball in Haverhill, 1961 By Mike McCormick I was standing on the grass behind our back door when Dad emerged with a baseball glove and ball. “I got this for you,” he said as he handed it to me. “Try it on, see if it fits.” I slipped the…

Book Review: Breslin: Essential Writings, edited by Dan Barry. The Library of America. 2024. 723 pages. $40. Review by David Daniel [This review originally ran on The Arts Fuse website] The idea of columnists like Breslin as “deadline artists” is apt. The task was coming up with an idea, tracking…

Malcolm Sharps: an appreciation By Peter Bendall Malcolm Sharps, a frequent contributor to the Richard Howe site, died recently at the age of seventy after suffering symptoms of long Covid, though the exact cause of death is not yet known. I knew him for nearly forty years and he was…

Living Madly: Small Things By Emilie-Noelle Provost Love and kindness are never wasted. It’s the sort of cliché you might find on a greeting card or in a self-help book. Most people I know tend to scoff at this type of sentimentality. It sounds sappy, too simplistic to have much…

When Nothing Can Help By Malcolm Sharps One of the rare curiosities of Central European travel is to make the crossing from Hungary to Slovakia underground by way of the Dobsina-Aggtelek cave system, which in all is 21km in length. On my first visit to Aggtelek, I met with no such lucky opportunity;…

Happy Birthday, Mr. Poe By David Daniel On this day, sir, in 1809, you were born in Boston, a child of actors. Before long, your father split to chase his own dreams and your mother continued acting to support herself and you—performing the roles of young women—Ophelia, Juliet … young…