Mark Athitakis

In a new ‘galaxy brain’ novel, it’s AD 59,000 — and we’re still kind of a mess

A Comedy Writer Faces Some Social Anxieties

5 essential Russell Banks novels you should read

How will climate change destroy us? ‘The Deluge’ imagines the scenarios.

“The Peshaman Fragments”

The Peshaman Fragments Following the highly publicized disappearance of Elias Peshaman late last year, this unfinished manuscript was found among a small number of cloud files authorities reviewed for possible information related to his whereabouts.…

Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet

“Facts About Bald Men,” “Up On the Roof,” “The Bald Man and His Twin,” “Return of the Kleptomaniac” & “Prayer for Hair”

Facts About Bald Men Bald men flare like matchsticks, lighting up the caves around them. When they sit down to eat, their baldness sits with them. They chew so vigorously their temples pulse. They buy fancy hats to cover their baldness, but they doff…

“His Name Is Sam,” “No One’s Perfect” & “At the Church in Sacramento”

His Name Is Sam His name is Sam. Nice kid, with etiquette you just don’t hear these days. Every moment was a “Thank you.” Every finger stained. Most of his teeth have rotted. He has an abscess on each side of his neck, yet still, he smiled when he…

“Uranus’ OKCupid Profile”

Uranus’ OKCupid Profile Sky King Star, 4.5 billion years — Outer Spiral, Milky Way Galaxy — 84% Match He/His — Queer, Bisexual — Monogamous Politically conservative – Employed full-time – Aquarius My self-summary Ice giant. Luminous blue atmosphere,…

“Circe in the Age of Instagram”

“The Garden State”

The Garden State I keep an artificial hydrangea in my vase, its pale blue shot-through with khaki. In Jersey, we called them snowballs, so much fuller than roses, so weirdly azure with an under-shine of rust. Kind of like my childhood New Jersey…

Extreme Music: From Silence to Noise and Everything in Between

“Strangers in Our Own Earth”

Strangers in Our Own Earth We have been made into something other: something ancient, swallowed — badland curves set from the once of subtropics, maybe single-celled algae and zooplankton. Behind each cretaceous sea we are the same buried peat. The…

“Legacy of Blue,” “Incarnations,” “Incarnation Intercept Sonnet,” “Riven, Driven Back” & “Jacob’s Ladder”

Legacy of Blue Blue of contusion, blue of the sea at noon summers when thunderheads build on the thin line the horizon comes down to; blue of Mary’s gown standing beside her son in agonies ten thousand times across the Renaissance. None of this will…

“A Reading from the Epistle of Horace the Paralytic at Corinth”

A Reading from the Epistle of Horace the Paralytic at Corinth for Horace Parlan, stricken with polio in his birth year, 1931 Thus, as it was, our Lord spoke: For those who have ears, let their mouths bleed. For those who have eyes, let them hear the…

“Broken Coffee Break”

Broken Coffee Break I stroll up to my favorite out-of-town coffee shop and find it closed for good. Through the black glass, a naked counter, stools scattered, space thrown open to conjecture and rats, stillness, indifference. I came here to sit in…

“The Kite” & “The Unlikeliness of Empty Spaces”

The Kite My grandson found a kite in the back of a closet. On the first day of spring, a cold front whipped the wind through boughs and scattered the contents of overflowing recycling bins. This is what it means to be in the now; release a kite to…

“Under the Harsh Light”

How 2022 became the year of the fragmented-identity novel

Why the Midwest should be a role model, not a punchline