On Quality

On Quality

I call it the Yeats effect, and sometimes the Chekhov effect or the Elizabeth Bishop or Philip Larkin or Alice Munro effect. To me it represents a standard of literary quality that is widely, even universally, agreed upon. One hears Dickens faulted for his...
Making It New

Making It New

Twenty years ago, when I accepted a part-time job teaching ninth grade English at the Foote School, an independent school in New Haven, CT, my plan was to remain for a year while applying for positions at local colleges. My education and background (I had majored in...