Christopher Byrd

When people peel away the garments of rectitude and join their will to that of a dictator who fastens historical grudges to racist ideology, an uptick in the workload of gravediggers is to be expected. In the place of a one-way ticket elsewhere, for the targets of animus (assuming their countrymen aren’t to blame), a […]

Plunging into anthologies is a hectic endeavor. Despite how lovingly assembled they may be, anthologies tend to proffer a type of literary tourism. One pities the editors of these books as one pities exasperated teachers taxed by the effort of contending with a distracted mind. Yet anthologies, which promote a canon of contemporaries, beg a […]

Over the past 20 years, with each succeeding book, Steve Erickson doesn’t so much add to his work as expand it. Though it’s unremarkable for a novelist to examine his fiefdom from an array of vantage points, Erickson examines his creation from an array of realities. For many years, literature has explored the vagaries of […]

Literature is a form of consolation. Even when it’s obtuse or wanton in its provocation, literature reminds us of our humanity in its frailty, depravity, and splendor. Since politics is often beset by memory loss, it’s deducible why from the era of the ancient Greeks to the present, literature has pointed to the human costs […]