This isn't the State, obviously. Matter of fact, I've had a devil of a time finding State clips online at all, and am going to have to find a new title for "Mallory finds comedy clips, generally from white male citizens of the British Commonwealth Mondays" soon enough.
Jane Hu on the history of how modern poetry has been influenced by "Chinese-ness" for far longer than Michael Derrick Hudson: This impression of Chinese-ness is a Western vision has very little to do with whatever you might call the “Chinese experience.” Instead, it has far more to do with engaging in the real roots of modernist American poetry. Slowly, often clumsily, white American poets have become more self-aware on this point. Billy Collins,…
Hello, Toasties, how are you all this Friday? I'm recovering from a migraine, which sucks. I hear caffeine is good for headaches, though, so I've been drinking coffee and eating chocolate muffins all day; my health is very important to me. This week we were very proud to publish this #longread by Colleen Hele, Naomi Sayers, and Jessica Wood on what's missing from the conversation around missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. SEPTEMBER DAD…
"The detectives in such stories are nearly always amateurs and frequently women. They are typically well educated, intuitive, and often hold jobs (caterer, innkeeper, librarian, teacher, dog trainer, shop owner, reporter) that bring them into constant contact with other residents of their town and the surrounding region. Like other amateur detectives, they typically have a contact on the police force who can give them access to important information about the case at hand,…
I love being a librarian. Every day is different, and I enjoy helping people with their plans and projects. But with the job also comes a number of questions I cannot answer, or would simply prefer not to get. While you might imagine you can ask your local librarian anything, there may be times when they simply won’t have a ready response for you. …
Jay Caspian Kang's profile of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is unbelievably fascinating: This is the Abdul-Jabbar paradox: He’s a man who cares enough about his legacy to write two memoirs and eight other books, but he refuses to engage in the usual smoothing, sanding and editing that is required of a public persona. He instead asks you to accept his version of his truth, even if the truth is that at 68, he sometimes has a…
Malena Magnolia was sitting at a table with her best friend, Harley, waiting to pick up a pizza to go, when a stranger approached them. “This dude is talking to us and saying all this vulgar stuff,” Malena recalls. The two did their best to ignore him, but he was persistent, trying to provoke a response. Harley remembers watching her best friend. She could sense Malena’s frustration boiling. Finally, Malena turned and looked…
Parts one and two. "The latter inserted fluid into the former; some of which was absorbed into the softer tissues and membranes, the remainder left to seep back into the open air." "One of them allowed a set of fingers, nails and all, to enter its most vulnerable hollow." "The integrity of both cavities was breached." "The larger of the two thoroughly excavated the other."…
The first time I read Matthew Salesses’ work was five years ago, when we were published together in a (now-defunct) online literary journal, Pindeldyboz. Matt’s flash fiction story, one of several that would eventually form his chapbook collection Our Island of Epidemics, blew me away for its mingling of lyricism, surprise, myth, and human longing. After I reached out to tell him I admired his work, we became friends, and since then I’ve followed his career…
You're a wise and experienced person of the world; you already know what to expect if you drive past a nondescript sandstone building named anything like "Living Water" or "Faith Accompli" or something in Greek when you're not in the Greek part of town. But sometimes you have to ask yourself: is the vaguely-named building at the end of this strip mall a church? If it's named anything like the following, it probably is: Cornerstone…
J.E. Reich's previous work for The Toast can be found here. The concepts of lightness and weight are very important to you. You refuse to buy a scale. Every time you have sex in a bowler hat -- which is often -- you are struck with nostalgia concerning your Bohemian grandfather, who was also a mayor before the war. (Which war? THE War, of course.) You frequently compare your wife to a baby found…
we don't have to be always so much of touching we could just touch one hand, or none, for a while touching's fun but you know what else is fun? not touching babe you are SUCH a good kisser it's like i don't even have to give you any kissing tips but i wonder, just from being curious what kissing would be like if you weren't holding my entire throat like…
His sisters, 18-year-old Eyman and 17-year-old Ayisha, could hardly keep up with the tweets and stunning news about their little brother. Because Ahmed was never much for social media, the girls set up a Twitter account for him, @istandwithahmed, and watched it balloon to thousands of followers within hours. "We're trending no. 1!" Ayisha cried to her sister, holding a cellphone over…
