What fun it was to talk with host Charity Nebbe on the Iowa Public Radio program “Talk of Iowa” yesterday about CREATURE, Mary Shelley, my January-term study-abroad course, and the cloud of witnesses cheering us on. Here’s the podcast: https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/talk-of-iowa/2026-03-03/iowa-author-explores-mary-shelleys-life-beyond-frankenstein
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On the top floor of the Accademia in Florence, in an overlooked panel of a medieval altarpiece, is an image that’s easy to ignore: a shepherd’s dog, barking at the angel who’s suddenly appeared to rouse the obviously startled shepherds from their sleep. There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks […]
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7/7/25 draft: part of an attempt to trace the figure of the skylark through Blake and Shelley into the twentieth century for A Thing of Beauty. The Lark Ascending: A Musician Goes to War The map is heavy, stiff, on grayish linen-backed paper, springing out of its folds like a creature eager to breathe. It’s […]
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Thanks to the wonderful organizers and colleagues of the “Anna Letitia Barbauld: Voicing Dissent” conference at the University of York, at which I’ve just had the pleasure of speaking. Here’s my paper, as delivered, at the “Chapter Four” link below.
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Delighted and grateful to share the news that CREATURE: A Novel of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein has received five stars and the “Highly Recommended Award of Excellence” from The Historical Fiction Company. This designation has come my way with a lovely review from The Historical Fiction Company, included below: Creature: A Novel of Mary Shelley […]
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And Urizen Read in his book of brass in sounding tones Listen O Daughters to my voice Listen to the Words of Wisdom So shall [ye] govern over all let Moral Duty tune your tongue But be your hearts harder than the nether millstone To bring the shadow of Enitharmon beneath our wondrous tree That […]
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This year I’ve tried two ways – printmaking and welding – to get under the dirty, stubborn skin of William Blake. Both rely on fire to inscribe your intention and an elemental ground – paper or metal – to preserve and transmit it. Both ask you to dedicate yourself to learning an art that won’t […]
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It’s official: actor Julian Sands has passed at age 65, after disappearing while hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains. He was a great actor – and also a genuine aficionado of literature. His work offered me an artist’s great gift: a small-town kid’s early intuition that the world can be grand and beautiful beyond its […]
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Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference, Ripton, Vermont On a hillside in Vermont, at the end of a gravel road, a wooden cabin near the treeline. Four apple trees. A meadow alive with butterflies, tall buttercups, and the low intent fronds of wild parsnip, which will flower by August in skin-blistering yellow stalks three feet high […]
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“May you live in interesting times,” says an apocryphal Chinese curse. And for a Romanticist writing about Byron, boxing, and the celebrity culture of Regency England, the news that AI can now fake even more human creations is “interesting” indeed. Now AI has made a “song” by Drake and The Weeknd that neither artist authorized […]
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