Last Wednesday, I participated in a panel discussion about the role of creative writing in service learning. Sponsored by GW's Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, the event paired me with Kendra Thompson of 826DC, a nonprofit that provides young learners with programs and resources that develop their creative and expository writing. Kendra... Continue Reading →
Literary News: To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman
When I started this blog in January, my first post was a short comment on the frenzy around the discovery of a "new" manuscript by Harper Lee. That manuscript was released almost two weeks ago as Go Set a Watchman. In my January post, I noted that the manuscript was hardly new, but—according to Lee herself—was instead an earlier draft... Continue Reading →
On Freedom and Patriotism
I've recently been binge watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and yesterday—in one of those inexplicable accidents of perfect timing—I watched the episodes in which Oliver takes on predator drones and interviews Edward Snowden. The segment on Snowden, which also covered the dangers of renewing the PATRIOT Act, reveals in stark detail just how... Continue Reading →
Don’t Forgive: A Reaction to the Shooting at Emanuel A.M.E.
Six days have lapsed since Dylann Roof committed what I will only refer to as a hate crime and an act of domestic terrorism: the calculated murder of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. While the events were unfolding, I was copyediting a special cluster of academic articles, which studied the ways... Continue Reading →
Thoughts at the Public Library
Despite my best intentions, my blog has been quiet over the past few months. Sitting on the second storey of the Alexandria Public Library, I find myself considering this silence as I looked to the street below. Occasionally, a car blurs by. Tree branches bow in the breeze. The day has been cool and breezy, a necessary respite... Continue Reading →
Notes from the Classroom: John Stuart Mill’s “What Is Poetry?”
With ten minutes left in yesterday's class, I said, "Sorry, Lord Tennyson. You're not happening today." Alfred Tennyson, Emily Brontë, and Matthew Arnold got sidelined, because my students detected something to fret about. And that something was an unsettling charge against John Stuart Mill. Let me preface. This semester, I'm teaching a section of English... Continue Reading →
Literary News: Harper Lee’s Secret Manuscript
By now, I'm sure you've all heard the news that the ever-reclusive Harper Lee is set to publish a second novel entitled Go Set a Watchman. It's a thrilling announcement for the literary community, with both Facebook and Twitter thrumming with the announcement. So far, though, I've seen little comment on the secret history of Lee's second... Continue Reading →
Patrick Thomas Henry 