Benjamin A. Railton's Blog, page 72

July 1-2, 2023: June 2023 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

June5: Environmental Activisms: Aldo Leopold: A series inspired by my older son’ssummer opportunity to work with a current environmental activist kicks off withthe pioneering conservationist who helped develop three important concepts.

June6: Environmental Activisms: Mardy Murie: The series continues with three factorsthat help explain the unique life and legacy of the “Grandmother of theConservation Movement.”

June7: Environmental Activisms: Animated Activism: Three examples of thelongstanding link between animation and the environment, as the series rollson.

June8: Environmental Activisms: 21st Century Voices: Three recentbooks that carry the legacy of environmental writing into our current moment.

June9: Environmental Activisms: All of Us: And speaking of us, the seriesconcludes with three ways we can all be environmental activists.

June10-11: Environmental Activisms: The Climate Just Cities Project: A specialweekend post on a few ways to learn more about the vital project with which myson is working this summer.

June12: Women in War: The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act: On the 75thanniversary of its passage, a series on women in war starts with three womenwho embody the arguments for the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act.

June13: Women in War: Molly Pitcher: The series continues with the why theiconic war hero who didn’t really exist still matters. 

June14: Women in War: The Civil War: Three of the complicated and compellingwomen who managed to serve in the Civil War, as the series fights on.

June15: Women in War: World War II: Three groundbreaking organizations that helped turn the tide of history.

June16: Women in War: Miyoko Hikiji: The series concludes with a book andsoldier that can help bring our conversations into the 21st century.

June17-18: Women in War: Tanya Roth’s Guest Post: A repeat of a wonderful GuestPost from September 2021, drawn from Roth’s book on women in the military.

June19: Beach Reads: New to Liberty: Focused the annual Beach Reads series onbooks by colleagues and friends, starting with DeMisty Bellinger’s debut novel.

June20: Beach Reads: Katharine Covino’s Books: The series continues with mycolleague Katy’s co-authored books for teens.

June21: Beach Reads: Ian Williams’ Latest: A pair of 2021 releases from mysuper-talented friend Ian, as the series reads on.

June22: Beach Reads: Illmatic Consequences: Many of my friends I haven’t met inperson yet, like Walter D. Greason, co-editor of this new collection.

June23: Beach Reads: Forthcoming (for Next Summer, Natch): The series concludeswith a trio of forthcoming books for which you’ll need to keep room in thebeach bag.

June24-25: Crowd-sourced Beach Reads: As usual, one of my favoritecrowd-sourced posts of the year!

June26: Germany and America: Kennedy in Berlin: A series on German Americanhistories kicks off with Kennedy’s influential speech on its 60th anniversary.

June27: Germany and America: Ben Franklin: The series continues with what wecan all learn from Franklin’s anti-German xenophobia.

June28: Germany and America: 19th Century Figures: What four 19thcentury German Americans can tell us about the century, as the series rolls on.

June29: Germany and America: The German American Bund: Three distinct butcomplementary ways to contextualize a Nazi American organization.

June30: Germany and America: The Lives of Others: The series concludes with howa film that’s very much about 1980s East Germany can still tell us a lot about21st century America.

July 4thseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topicsyou’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!

June 30, 2023: Germany and America: The Lives of Others

[On June 26th, 1963,President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich binein Berliner” speech in West Berlin. That was just one of manyinteresting moments that brought the two nations together, so for the speech’s60th anniversary I’ll AmericanStudy it and other German-Americanhistories!]

[SomeSPOILERS in what follows, so if you haven’t seen The Lives of Others yet, go watch it first then come on back!]

On what’sunquestionably distinct about the stunning East German historical drama, andtwo ways it can still apply to AmericanStudying.

Despitethe numerous and important Nazi and American connections I highlighted inyesterday’s post, I do still believe that there’s some validity to Godwin’s Law, the ideathat eventually all internet debates feature unnecessary and fraughtcomparisons to the Holocaust. That genocidal horror was its own thing, and we canand should discuss our own horrors without trying to force them into parallelswith it. On a somewhat lesser but still horrific scale, the same should holdfor the histories of Stasisurveillance and torture that are the heart of the truly amazing 21stcentury German film The Lives of Others (2006).Both those histories and the film’s depictions of them (through mostlyfictional but deeply realistic characters and plotlines) are specific, requiretheir own understandings and analysis, and don’t deserve to be reduced to acomparative lens for American histories or issues (nor vice versa). The factthat the film’s lead actor (Ulrich Mühe) had extensivepersonal experience with those East German histories (and wastragically affected by them, as that hyperlinked obituary makes clear) onlyamplifies the importance of engaging with them on their own terms.

Thesethings are never either-or, however, and we can do that specific engagement yetstill think about what a great work of art can help us see and analyze in ourown society, histories, issues, identities, and more. In the case of The Lives of Others, one very obviousand very important such American lesson has to do with how easily anddestructively we can let the worst of us become our most powerful figures.Toward the end of the film, one of its heroes, the playwright Georg Dreyman(Sebastian Koch), says to its most buffoonish yet most evil villain, CultureMinister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme), “To think that people like you once ruleda country.” It’s difficult to remember back to those halcyon days of 2006 (orwhatever year it was when I first got to see this film), but I imagine Ithought that the U.S. was fortunate not to have been ruled by cartoonishly (yetall too realistically) evil buffoons like Hempf. And then we went and electedpresident a man who makes Hempf look like Abraham Lincoln by comparison. Thetruth is, there’s some part of us—and I mean both a portion of our populace butalso a layer to our collective consciousness—that seems to want leaders whorepresent the very worst of our identities, impulses, ids. We unfortunately don’tneed films to show us what happens when we make such figures our leaders, butit doesn’t hurt to have further painful reminders.

That’s oneof many depressing layers to this important film. But (without getting intospecific spoilers) The Lives of Others isultimately one of the most moving and inspiring stories I’ve ever encountered,in any medium. A great deal of that is due to its portrayal of what happenswhen people are able to truly empathize and connect with one another, despitethe mechanisms and systems of oppression and prejudice and division and hatethat can too often get in the way. But it’s also due to a historical realitythat the film’s conclusion features, and about which I wrote inthis post: that not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the EastGerman regime, Berlin opened the amazing Stasi Museum, “a place” (asI wrote in that post) “where Germans and visitors alike can engage with andseek to understand one of the darkest eras in that nation’s history.” Since2006 America has finally, finally begun to construct such places ourselves,with the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peaceand Justice a particularly stunning example. But we’ve got so far to go totruly remember our hardest histories, and seem these days to be regressinginstead—so we can still learn a lot from TheLives of Others and the German histories, hardest and most inspiring, itdepicts.

June Recapthis weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? German-American contexts you’d highlight?

June 29, 2023: Germany and America: The German American Bund

[On June 26th, 1963,President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich bin einBerliner” speech in West Berlin. That was just one of many interestingmoments that brought the two nations together, so for the speech’s 60thanniversary I’ll AmericanStudy it and other German-American histories!]

On threedistinct but complementary ways to contextualize an AmericanNazi organization.

1)     That Rally: I said a great deal of what I’dwant to say about the justifiably infamous February 1939 Madison SquareGarden rally in thisSaturday Evening Post column(that first, hyperlinked short documentary is well worth your time if you wantto learn more about this historic and horrific night). “If George Washingtonwere alive today, he would be friends with Adolf Hitler,” said German AmericanBund secretaryJames Wheeler Hill in his introductory remarks. We can find plenty ofdespicable statements about American ideals across the course of our history,but Hill’s has to be very high on that list.

2)     The Great War’s Legacies: There is quiteliterally no excuse for such statements or attitudes, and I am certainly notgoing to make any in this space. But individual historical moments don’t happenin a vacuum, and just as the rise of Nazi Germany has to be contextualized withwhat occurredin that country during and after the Great War, it’s likewise important torecognize that the U.S. featured agreat deal of anti-German prejudice and xenophobia during and after thatwar. Which makes it entirely understandable that in subsequent years GermanAmericans would seek community and solidarity in civic and cultural organizations—it’sjust pretty unfortunate that as of the 1930s the largest and most influentialsuch organization was one started by both Americanand German Nazis.

3)     White Supremacy: In recent years, there’s beena lot of overdueand important attention paid to the way in which Adolf Hitler and theGerman Nazi Party learned about turning prejudice into policy fromJim Crow and other American systems. At the same time, it’s important tothink about a distinct but related trajectory: how communities of whiteimmigrants have, too often, contributed to American white supremacist ideas andideologies. A main story in mycurrent book project features an Irish American immigrant who becamethe national face of the anti-Chinese movement, for example. And I think wecan see the same process at work with the German American Bund, as exemplified byone more quote from the 1939 rally: in his closing remarks, Bund leader Fritz Julius Kuhntold the audience that “the Bund is open to you, provided you are sincere, ofgood character, of white gentile stock, and an American citizen imbued withpatriotic zeal.”

LastGerman-American history tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? German-American contexts you’d highlight?

June 28, 2023: Germany and America: 19th Century Figures

[On June 26th, 1963,President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich bin einBerliner” speech in West Berlin. That was just one of many interestingmoments that brought the two nations together, so for the speech’s 60thanniversary I’ll AmericanStudy it and other German-American histories!]

What fourGerman Americans collectively tell us about the arc of the 19thcentury.

1)     JohnJacob Astor (1763-1848): Born Johann Jakob Astor, a butcher’s son in thesmall German town of Walldorf, John Jacob Astor died 85 years later in New YorkCity as America’s first multi-millionaire. Because that fortune he establishedbecame a legacy that extended to many subsequent generations (each of them featuringsomeone named John JacobAstor as well, including one whodied on the Titanic), it’s easyto see Astor’s arc as inevitable or at least a given. But much like the NewYork City to which Astor moved in the late 1780s (having first immigratingto Baltimore in 1783), Astor’s Revolutionary-era origins were quite humble and hisdevelopment equally gradual. Moreover, he continued to link both his own statusand his adopted city to his German heritage, serving for example in his finaldecades of life as president of the GermanSociety of the City of New York.

2)     TheRoeblings: Another German-born New Yorker, one also named Johann/John,would contribute even more to the city’s landscape (in every sense). BornJohann August Röbling in 1804 Prussia, JohnAugustus Roebling emigrated to the US with his brother Carl in 1831 andbecame one of the Early Republic’s leading engineers. He designed multiplebridges, canals, and other engineering projects over the next few decades, butit was theBrooklyn Bridge that would become both his final project (he diedof tetanus after an 1869 construction accident) and his most enduringlegacy. That was especially true because both his son WashingtonRoebling and his daughter-in-law EmilyWarren Roebling, themselves both engineers as well, took over and completedthe project after John’s death. Another and an even more collectivelyinfluential multi-generational German American family to be sure!

3)     TheodoreDreiser (1871-1945): The complex and talented turn of the 20th centuryAmerican realist and naturalist novelist was a second-generation German American,as his father John Paul Dreiser had immigrated to the US from Prussia. AlthoughDreiser spent a good bit of his life in New York and set a number of worksthere, he remained throughout his career more closely associatedwith Chicago, the city where he got his start as a journalist; that shiftfrom New York to Chicago itself captures some of whereAmerican society and imaginations alike went in the last decades of the 19thcentury. But I would also say Dreiserconsistently captured two key questions facing second-generation immigrantsin the late 19th century as well as every other American in everytime period before and since: what does it mean to achieve success, and whatdoes it cost to do so? Each of these individuals and families offers adifferent set of answers, and together they begin to trace the arc of not just GermanAmericans, but the nation itself in its first century and a half of existence.

NextGerman-American history tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? German-American contexts you’d highlight?

June 27, 2023: Germany and America: Ben Franklin

[On June 26th, 1963,President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich bin einBerliner” speech in West Berlin. That was just one of many interestingmoments that brought the two nations together, so for the speech’s 60thanniversary I’ll AmericanStudy it and other German-American histories!]

[NB. Thiswas one of my earliest blog posts, and I’ve decided to repeat it roughly as is,other than adding hyperlinks. Frankly, I wish more had changed between late2010 and mid-2023.]

I’ve written elsewherein this space about Emma Lazarus’ impressive sentiments on immigration, asexpressed in her sonnet “The New Colossus”; as I wrote there, while she mightseem superficially to be simply echoing national ideals about our welcomingnature and melting pot society, I would argue that her emphasis on acceptingthe “wretched refuse” of other nations puts her ideas in explicit contrast tomany of our national anti-immigration narratives and arguments, such as thosebeing articulated in her own era to bolster support for laws like the ChineseExclusion Act. That is, many such anti-immigration voices have tried to portraythemselves as generally in favor of immigration, but opposed in this particularcase, when it comes to this particular group, because of the undesirable natureof those who are arriving. The most succinct example of this phenomenon wasarticulated, not surprisingly, by Lou Dobbs, who once claimed on his CNN showthat he isn’t xenophobic, he just doesn’t like other nations dumping theirtrash on us.

Similarly, many anti-immigrantarguments depend on one version or another of the sentiment that it’s differentthis time, with this group—that prior generations and communities of immigrantshave worked to assimilate, to learn English, to become part of our society, andso on, but that this particular group is not willing to do so, is insteadseeking to change our nation to become more like them. Exemplifying sucharguments is another text with which I have alreadygrappled in this space, Pat Buchanan’s abhorrent post-Virginia Tech piece,where Buchanan writes of the thirty-six million Asian American immigrants whohave arrived—invaded, is his word—since the 1965 Immigration Act that “almostall [came] from countries whose peoples have never fully assimilated in anyWestern country.” Since Pat is writing about my in-laws and my [now ex-]wife(and half of my boys to boot), it goes without saying that I have one or twoproblems with this assertion; but leaving aside any personal connections,perhaps the biggest problem with these “it’s different this time, with thisgroup” arguments is that they’ve been made, erroneously, in opposition to variousimmigrant arrivals and groups for at least two hundred fifty years of Americanhistory.

Those making this argument mightbe deeply ignorant of our history, but they can take solace in the fact thatone of the first Americans to make the same ignorant argument was also one ofour smartest and most talented national icons. In the midst of his 1751socio-historical study “ObservationsConcerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc,” BenFranklin wondered why his state of Pennsylvania, “founded by the English, [should] become a colony ofaliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of ourAnglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more thanthey can acquire our complexion.” Anyone who wrote as voluminously as Franklinwas bound to be wrong plenty of the time (and I’m not trying to use anindividual such instance to downplay his amazing life and successes, nor hisgenerally forward-thinking and tolerant nature), but what’s striking about thismoment in retrospect is less the inaccuracy of his prediction and more thesilliness of it, and of how much even a visionary like Franklin can become theworst angel of his nature through the influence of xenophobic fears (or maybejust a dislike of bratwurst).

Call me anidealist, but it seems to me that if those making arguments like these aboutAsian or Hispanic American immigrants could see Franklin’s text and recognizethat silliness, it might make them second-guess a bit their own certainty aboutthis time and this particular group and how in their case we had better beafraid of what kind of America they might produce.  At the very least, Franklin’s case can remindus that we have always been this kindof America, a mixed and multi-national and multi-lingual one, driven by theworst kinds of fears yet also, as Lazarus reminds us, the best kinds of hopes. NextGerman-American history tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? German-American contexts you’d highlight?

June 26, 2023: Germany and America: Kennedy in Berlin

[On June 26th, 1963,President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich bin einBerliner” speech in West Berlin. That was just one of many interestingmoments that brought the two nations together, so for the speech’s 60thanniversary I’ll AmericanStudy it and other German-American histories!]

On threestriking and significant choices in Kennedy’s speech.

1)     I am a Berliner: First things first: thatfamous line, with which Kennedy both begins and ends his speech, wasnot translated nor understood, not in the moment and not for many years thereafter,as having anything to do with jelly donuts (the creation of that urban legend,discussed in that hyperlinked article, is an interesting subject in its ownright to be sure). It was also not particularly surprising—Kennedy’s entirevisit, after all, was about showing solidarity for the West German people, andthere was no better way to do that than with such identification. But Kennedyisn’t just expressing his own perspective—he calls it “the proudest boast … inthe world of freedom,” a bold and important act of collective identification.

2)     A city and people divided: Kennedy’s speechisn’t just about the rest of the world, of course—it’s at least as much aboutthe specific situation in which the people of West Berlin and West Germanyfound themselves. Importantly, Kennedy describes those communities as half of adivided whole, rather than separate from East Berlin and East Germany—arguing,as West Berlin’s Mayor WillyBrandt had also done, that this division was “not only an offense againsthistory but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbandsand wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joinedtogether.” Of course the East German government wanted to define the city andnation as a unified whole as well—but Kennedy’s choice resisted that definitionand offered a free alternative.

3)     A collective future: In his moving finalparagraphs, Kennedy imagines another, far broader form of unity, one addresses directlyto his East German audience: “You live in a defended island of freedom, butyour life is part of the main. So let me ask you, as I close, to lift your eyesbeyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merelyof this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedomeverywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselvesand ourselves to all mankind.” Not sure there’s a more well-constructed andpowerful moment in the history of American presidential speeches, nor that Ineed to say any more about it than that!

NextGerman-American history tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? German-American contexts you’d highlight?

June 24-25, 2023: Crowd-sourced Beach Reads

[Thearrival of summer means a lot of good things, but high on the list for thisAmericanStudier is the chance to read for pleasure, preferably on a beachblanket with a view of the crashing surf. For this year’s annualBeach Reads series, I’ve highlighted recent or forthcoming booksby colleagues and friends. Leading up to this crowd-sourced post featuring thesuggestions of fellow BeachReaders—add yours in comments, please!]

Tuesday’ssubject KatyCovino writes, “The ThursdayMurder Club mystery series are an absolute delight. I’ve read and rereadthem too many times. Each is a good cozy-ish mystery, but also offers so muchin terms of tight, intricate plots and authentic, relatable characters and relationships.They are irresistible.”

Wednesday’ssubject, my friend IanWilliams, recommends Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto, as agreat Beach Read.

OliviaLucier writes, “Finally finishing up the Chronicles of Narnia series. Most ofus have read The Lion, the Witch, and theWardrobe but the others in the series are must reads too!”

TimMcCaffrey shares, “The Martian by AndyWeir is a fun read.”

LaTonya Sadler Hamilton goes withBook Lovers by EmilyHenry, and PaigeWallace agrees, “I was going to suggest that too! It’s my favorite ofhers.”

VeronicaHendrick says, “Don’t know if it is a Beach Read because it is quite long,but am loving Pachinko.” [BEN: Oh no, having to spend moretime on the beach to read it? Curses!] Nicole Bjorklund agrees, writing, “I juststarted this one and I’m loving it, too!”

NicoleBjorklund adds “The Measure by NikkiErlick was really great. It made me wish I was in a book club because it wouldmake a phenomenal book club book! HappyPlace by Emily Henry, I really feel like all of her books are greattraditional beach-reads while still having a decent amount of depth to them.And Remarkably Bright Creatures by ShelbyVan Pelt.”

ElizabethDuclos-Orsello highlights Lessons in Chemistry, The Awakening, and The German Wife.

NatalieChase writes that ”Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is next up on myTBR. Can’t wait!”

Anne Holub nominates “the latest greatestessays from Samantha Irby, QuietlyHostile.”

Jessica Blouin shares “Mindsight by Dr.Daniel J. Siegel. It’s a fascinating read that ties the objective physiology ofthe brain to this subjective experience we call the mind. It’s really changedthe way I think about my life—what’s happened in the past and in the presenttoo.”

Myfavorite podcasterKelly Therese Pollock writes, “I just finished I Have Some Questions for You byRebecca Makkai and couldn’t put it down.”

AnneMarieDonahue goes with Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered, When You Look like Us, and Hollywood Wives.

ShayneSimahk highlights The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by DaveGrohl and How to Sell a Haunted House by GradyHendrix.

GuestPoster and GuestPost-curator par excellence Robin Field nominates “Sonora Jha’s campus novel The Laughter. Sogood!”

And longtimefriend of the blog Jeff Renye likewise sharesa pair of nominations: Louis Sachar’s excellent YA novel Holes and Adam Nevill’s The Ritual.

Finally,Shirley Wagner, one of the great leaders in Fitchburg State University history,emailed to share a list of Beach Read nominations: Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes, JoeIde’s IQ, Laura Schenone’s The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken, AnneHillerman’s The Way of the Bear, and AtulGawande’s Being Mortal.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Beach Reads you’d nominate?

June 23, 2023: Beach Reads: Forthcoming (for Next Summer, Natch)

[Thearrival of summer means a lot of good things, but high on the list for thisAmericanStudier is the chance to read for pleasure, preferably on a beachblanket with a view of the crashing surf. For this year’s annualBeach Reads series, I’ll highlight recent or forthcoming books bycolleagues and friends. Add your Beach Read ideas and nominations for acrowd-sourced weekend post that’ll always keep toes in the sand!]

Not everygreat book is gonna be out in time for this summer’s beach reading, but thatjust means we can start planning next year’s beach bag as well! Here are three,all like the rest of the week’s titles authored by colleagues and friends, thatyou’ll definitely want in there alongside the sunscreen and Goldfish crackers:

1)     KateJewell’s Livefrom the Underground: A History of College Radio (December 2023)

2)     Lara Schwartz’s Tryto Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life(TBD; I believe this is now the title, rather than the one listed there, but it’llbe the same great book either way)

3)     JessicaMaffetore’s debut novel Eleanora(also TBD, but looks like very soon and I’ll update this post and space when Iknow more!)

Crowd-sourcedpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. So onemore time: what do you think? Beach Reads you’d nominate?

June 22, 2023: Beach Reads: Illmatic Consequences

[Thearrival of summer means a lot of good things, but high on the list for thisAmericanStudier is the chance to read for pleasure, preferably on a beachblanket with a view of the crashing surf. For this year’s annualBeach Reads series, I’ll highlight recent or forthcoming books bycolleagues and friends. Add your Beach Read ideas and nominations for acrowd-sourced weekend post that’ll always keep toes in the sand!]

The firstthree authors I’ve highlighted in this week’s series are folks I got to know inperson, as Fitchburg State colleagues (past and present) and friends. But oneof the most amazing things about the 21st century is how manycolleagues and friends I’ve never met in person, but have connected withthrough the intertubes (Twitterespecially). One of my most inspiring such connections is to Walter D. Greason, a Professor atMacalesterCollege and a leading voice in History, African American Studies, AfricanStudies, and many more disciplines and communities. And through that connectionI’ve had a front-row seat to the creation and publication of the vital newanthology Illmatic Consequences:The Clapback to Opponents of ‘Critical Race Theory’ (2023), co-editedby Greason and DanianDarrell Jerry and with illustrations by Stacey Robinson. Want to be themost badass as well as the best-informed person on your beach of choice? Thenmake sure to pack Illmatic Consequences inyour bag!

Last BeachReads tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Beach Reads you’d nominate?

June 21, 2023: Beach Reads: Ian Williams’ Latest

[Thearrival of summer means a lot of good things, but high on the list for thisAmericanStudier is the chance to read for pleasure, preferably on a beachblanket with a view of the crashing surf. For this year’s annualBeach Reads series, I’ll highlight recent or forthcoming books bycolleagues and friends. Add your Beach Read ideas and nominations for acrowd-sourced weekend post that’ll always keep toes in the sand!]

I wroteabout my then-FSU colleague Ian Williamsand his inspiring teaching in a state prison in one of myearliest posts, and have gone on to feature twodifferent books of his (one poetry and one fiction, because as I mentionedin Monday’s post Ian is another creative writer who truly excels in bothgenres) in priorBeach Reads series. But as long as Ian continues to put out excellent newbooks in his still-blossoming (and already hugely successful)career, I’ll continue to share them here, and this time I’ve got two recentpublications to nominate for your beach bag: his most recent poetry collection,2021’s Word Problems;and another 2021 release (what can I say, the man is prolific), the essaycollection Disorientation: BeingBlack in the World. I’m truly honored to call this man a formercolleague and a lifelong friend, and to be able to read each and every piece ofthat evolving and deepening literary career—on the beach and everywhere else!

Next BeachReads tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Beach Reads you’d nominate?