I love Houston. And I wasn't even born here. And I definitely didn't get here as fast as I could. Okay, I was born in the south. Swatting mosquitoes and fighting cockroaches are as natural to me as …
Cy Twombly passed on back in July, and we here at Gulf Coast wanted to honor him in a big way. His presence in our own city of Houston has been substantial over the years, especially in the form of …
I hate driving. I think the freeway must be Hell, and I intend not to go there. That said, I can happily reflect that the adversarial nature of my relationship with Houston's roads and drivers is …
For the sports fan, October is the time of narrative abundance, a time with endings both happy (see Albert Pujols and Nelson Cruz) and despairing (Boston, Epstein, fried chicken), second acts that …
Last Wednesday evening, my cell phone rang while I was preparing dinner. I washed my hands before swiping and double-clicking on the iPhone screen. It was my husband calling to tell me Steve Jobs had …
People hide themselves in a lot of different ways. Masks are really popular. Also, holes. Closets, forests. Sometimes people hide because they are in danger. Other times, for fun, an exciting way to …
We're very excited to announce the winner and runners-up for the 2011 Barthelme Prize for Short Prose. Our thanks to this year's judge, Sarah Manguso. Winner: "Grand Canyon II" by Erica Olsen of …
"The desire of the novel to be a poem. The desire of the girl to be a horse. The desire of the poem to be an essay. The essay's desire, its reach towards fiction. And the obvious erotics of this." …
Here's the honest, embarrassing truth: when I found out I'd gotten a scholarship to attend the Sewanee Writers' Conference this summer, I didn't want to go. I'd just come off of my fifth straight …
Do not ask who I am and do not ask for me to remain the same: leave it to our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order. At least spare us their morality when we write. ΒΆ Michel …
Dear Gulf Coast Supporters, Gulf Coast 's 2011 Gala is just around the corner. This annual event is the cornerstone of our fundraising efforts and a night that the Houston literary and arts …
In 1996, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, an English professor at George Washington University, published Monster Theory , a short anthology of critical essays dealing with monsters in literary and cinematic …
Some writers work on film and some do not. Sure, there have been a few good movies about novelists and poets--Curtis Hanson's adaptation of Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys is charming and funny; Jane …
I normally wouldn't post to the Gulf Coast blog about a subject just recently addressed by another editor, but in this case, I'd like to do just that. Sort of. Earlier this week, Gulf Coast 's …
There has been a spate of articles written in recent months about the value of books and an education in the Humanities. Danny Heitman of the Christian Science Monitor points out that the Humanities …
We know that extra cash is in short supply for so many people these days and that things like magazines are luxuries compared to many other products around the house. We here at Gulf Coast are …
Let's be honest: if you're reading this blog you've probably read your fair share of submission guidelines, and, like me, you've probably received plenty of solicited and unsolicited publishing …
Before I became a struggling writer, I was a struggling comedian. This is perhaps not surprising given the three things my childhood never suffered for: books from yard sales, comedy on vinyl, and …
Three years sounded like an eternity when I first showed up in the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program. But the time has flown by - a real hurricane of bizarre and beautiful encounters …
For as long as I knew him, my grandfather sat in the same leather arm chair and listened to the same jazz songs on the same radio station. At every family party, he drank the same red-tinted …