Stuck in Eden By James Provencher At day’s end in late autumn I am sitting on a bench at the edge of Snug Cove where big workhorse tugs dwarf tied up trawlers, the local fishing fleet in Eden on Australia’s far South Coast. Eden’s claimed to be only one of…
The Allied invasion of Normandy – D-Day – occurred on this day in 1944. In the pre-dawn hours, thousands of British and American paratroopers jumped into the dark and stormy night. Though they mostly landed far from their designated drop zones and in scattered small bunches, their mere presence was…
This week Trasna is pleased to present the work of Theresa Jones, whose writing frequently focuses on place, location and dislocation. We open with her reading of her poem, “Bridget or Pat”, which treats of the challenges of her mother’s identity as an immigrant to the UK, and raises the…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. After the failure of last week’s Senate vote on creating an independent commission to review the events of January 6th, attention has increased on the need to do something to end or modify the filibuster. Sadly, Democratic Senator…
ARMENIAN TROUT By Sean Casey Previously published in Australia in a magazine called Torpedo for a tribute issue to the American novelist, writer and poet Richard Brautigan. As an adult of thirty, I learned of Armenia’s trout from a man named Albert. I had hired Albert to take me on…
A Book Review by Jack McDonough I spent my entire working life writing and editing copy but I’ve never written fiction. For certain, I’ve never written a novel. But I appreciate good writing and would like to help budding novelists, and even those already published, by sharing examples of remarkable…
WEARING A FEATHERED WIDE-BRIMMED GRAY HAT, Bob Dylan could’ve been a Mexican balladeer with a new Durango song, bouncing on stage and stamping his whole leg in time to the drum. Ramblin’ Jack Elliot dedicated “Me and Bobby McGee” to Jack Kerouac, who as a kid had played King of…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. In what rational universe could a democratic institution have 54 votes to advance an idea and 35 votes against, and the proposition fails? It would also have failed if there were 59 votes for it and just one…
Donald Arcand (1946-1965) was the first resident of Lowell to die in the Vietnam War. Arcand was born on February 13, 1946, and lived at 130 Ford Street in the city’s Little Canada neighborhood. After graduating from St. Joseph’s High School, he worked in a shoe factory until he enlisted…
In 1831, brothers John and Thomas Nesmith purchased 150 acres in Tewksbury from Judge Edward Livermore for $25,000. The following year, the brothers hired Alexander Wadsworth, a landscape architect from Boston who was the cousin of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and also the designer of Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, to…