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. ¶ 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 …
As the resident Scandinavian language speaker here in the Gulf Coast office, I thought I'd let you in on the entertaining taxonomy that exists within the shelves of Swedish superstore IKEA. I began …
With it being National Poetry Month, I thought I'd like to ask a truly unfair question: what are the best poems? Some of our editorial staff indulged my whim and got back to me with a few of their …
"Bright, bright, and bright, bright, bright, and bright, bright. Bright and bright, bright, and bright, bright moon." ¶Myoe, Buddhist Priest, 1173-1232 I've been thinking a lot lately about Japan. I …
A one-act play I wrote last semester under the tutelage of Mark Medoff was recently read onstage at the University of Houston's Wortham Theater. While primarily a fiction writer, I found playwriting …
If you happen to live around the Houston area, we hope to see you at the fourth annual Houston Indie Book Fest this Saturday (April 2nd) outside the Menil Collection. The book fair starts at 11 a.m. …