The Gulf Coast Blog

Craft • Culture • News

Craft • Culture • News

After Midnight: A New Year's Day Post

Dino Piacentini

I am writing this on New Year's Day. Inevitably, the mind turns towards resolutions. Read more. Run more. And, of course, write more. My mother was an enthusiastic resolution drafter. She would make a detailed list--walk one mile per day, read Bible ten…


New Year's Resolution: Can The Writer Be Humble?

Kay Cosgrove

At this time of year, reflection and resolution feel as essential as scarves and hats, as prevalent and popular. "Scarf, hat, reflection, in that order?" For the writer, reflection, resolution, and seasonal accessories are a staple of any month of the…


Reasons to Read The Berenstain Bears

Patrick Clement James

A recent Internet meme has Facebook users posting a list of books that they find personally influential. Here's my list: 1. The Berenstain Bears 2. Little Women 3. Leaves of Grass 4. What the Living Do 5. Brideshead Revisited 6. The Color Purple 7. Thomas…


The Acceptable Modern Scrooge Re-evaluating Dickensian Implication

Justin Chrestman

Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was published in full 170 years ago this last December 18th. I'd forgotten a few of the less familiar aspects of the work. For example, Scrooge's journey with the ghost of Christmas Present to a lighthouse and a ship…


Revision Cheat Sheet for the Perennially Lazy

Aja Gabel

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. That was the last resolution I made, two years ago, never to make a resolution again. I always set myself up for disappointment with grand ideas of “starting over” or “doing better.” In case you’re wondering, no, I…


To Tell a Proper Story In Celebration of Alice Munro

Ashley Wurzbacher

By now many people might have put down their champagne glasses after toasting to Alice Munro, celebrating her work and her legacy in the wake of her recent receipt of the Nobel Prize. But I’m still riding around on a little cloud of joy, revisiting her…


Auld Lang Syne A Sincere Tradition

Conor Bracken

It's New Year's Eve, which means a few things: 1. Colorful hats, with the little elastics that itch and dig into your chin 2. Drinking a little too much André 3. Lamenting Ryan Seacrest's frosted hair instead of Dick Clark's swarthy, bygone do 4. Chanting…