The Gulf Coast Blog

Craft • Culture • News

Craft • Culture • News

On Panda Bears and Death (and Why Neither Matters)

Thomas Calder

As Paul was readying the kids for a little hike, one of the boys started to panic; a first-grader, he was worried he'd get attacked by a bear. Paul told the kid: "The good news is we're all gonna die one day, so really you have nothing to worry about..."


The Writer as Rider

Sam Mansfield

As others have asked before, "Where is the poetry of the first Gulf War?", I ask, "Where is the great twenty-first century American bicycle poem?" And I am only half kidding...


A Writing-Exercise Grab Bag

Sara C Rolater

There are many different types of writing: but I've found it's just plain easier to write when I have a clear, manageable objective, no matter what stage of the writing process I'm at. So I thought I'd share some exercises I've collected over the years…


O, Poet! O, Emerson! O, RuPaul!

Katie Condon

"For all men live by truth," writes Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1844 essay The Poet, "and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man is only half himself, the…