Stephanie Nikolopoulos's Blog, page 25
February 13, 2014
Clip: Marco Polo Publishes 2 Pieces of My Flash Fiction
Marco! Polo! Marco Polo was an explorer. Marco Polo is a lit mag, edited by Darin Beasley, that explores language and love and existence and beauty and Frank O’Hara. It’s a capricious call-and-response. A call to explore the little moments. Responses that show that those small moments can lead to big discoveries. It kind of […]
February 12, 2014
UCLA Prof Blames “Beatniks” for Kristen Stewart’s Poetry
Kristen Stewart’s poetry has been blowing up the internet. I read a bunch of snarky comments about it on facebook last night, and this afternoon on my lunch break I discovered via Poets & Writers that the venerable Poetry Foundation gave it attention on their blog, Harriet. I wasn’t going to comment on it, but […]
Is Jack Kerouac a Modern Heir of James Joyce?
In The New York Times’ Sunday Book Review, Rivka Galchen and Pankaj Mishra took up the question: “Who Are James Joyce’s Modern Heirs?” The names Lydia Davis, Nadine Gordimer, Kenzaburo Oe, and José Saramago are mentioned between these two award-winning authors, but more than specific names Galchen and Mishra delineate ideas of what Joycean […]
February 11, 2014
Bernadette Sees Visions
image via Wikipedia While out collecting firewood near a French grotto near Massabielle, on February 11, 1858, a fourteen-year-old miller’s daughter by the name of Bernadette Soubirous had a vision of the Immaculate Conception. Some people believed her; others did not. Bishop Laurence questioned her and believed, and today Bernadette is recognized as a saint. […]
February 10, 2014
NY Chapter of Scripps Book Club Reads “Burning Furiously Beautiful”!
The New York chapter of the Scripps College alumni book club selected Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” as their January read and invited me to talk about the book. I had such a great time talking with all these brilliant women about Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation and […]
February 8, 2014
Happy 88th Birthday, Neal Cassady!
Neal Leon Cassady was born on this day in 1926 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His mother, Maude Jean (Scheuer), passed away when he was just ten years old, and his father, Neal Marshall Cassady, went on to raise him on the mean streets of skid row in Denver, Colorado. With an alcoholic father, Cassady […]
February 7, 2014
Neal Cassady’s Birthday Bash!
Denver is celebrating Neal Cassady’s birthday (which is tomorrow) tonight! Cassady is, of course, the real life inspiration behind Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, lived with The Grateful Dead for a short time, and drove the bus Further. His children, Cathy, Jami, and John Allen, will be at Mercury Cafe to celebrate […]
February 6, 2014
Who Is Rollo Greb in “On the Road”?
Some names are practically synonymous with Jack Kerouac’s On the Road: Dean Moriarty/Neal Cassady, Old Bull Lee/William S. Burroughs, and Carlo Marx/Allen Ginsberg, for sure. But what about Rollo Greb? Who was he? The character Rollo Greb in On the Road was based on Alan Ansen. Kerouac renamed him in other books. He was Irwin Swenson […]
February 5, 2014
100 Facts on William S. Burroughs for His 100th Birthday
The title say it all, and I’ve got a lot of ground to cover so let’s just get on with it! Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914, which would make him 100 years old today! But he passed away on August 2, 1997 The S. in William S. Burroughs stands for Seward Burroughs is […]
February 4, 2014
Remembering Neal Cassady
“I recently heard a quote in a play, the source I forget: ‘A man’s measure is not from the amount of love he gives to others but the amount he is loved.’ I have to think about that, but Neal was/is certainly loved.” ~ Carolyn Cassady Just a few days shy of his forty-second birthday, […]
