I mostly read, write, and write about poetry, its true. If I read fiction, I’m drawn to whatever is strange and haunting – SyFy, speculative fiction, or whatever lives close. After reading Shirley Jackson’s (one might say, ALMOST-YA) novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” this past summer, I was excited to come across this article she wrote in 1941, republished by the New Republic – https://newrepublic.com/article/75022/my-life-r-h-macy. What pleased me most was to see how, like Stein, Jackson’s prose is unmistakable. Even when the subject of her writing isn’t strange (i.e., working retail at Macy’s as opposed to two young girls living alone in a mansion), the same strangeness of the world can be heard in the way that she writes it. This, to me, is essentially poetic, as I suppose I want all prose to be. I often tell my students (particularly my creative writing students), that it’s okay to imitate other writers, because you will always sound like yourself. I can’t pretend I’m not also posting this because Macy’s mirrors the old B. Altman building we inhabit right nearby – I dare say I thought it was the GC!