—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, May 10, 1869 While the locomotives panted for the steamy consummation of the wedding of the rails, I was looking for the true bridegrooms: the Chinese who had laid the final tracks. I had no interest in capturing the official flumme...
My first reading of Grim Tales was not so long ago nor hard to remember, although the book was then shaped differently, still in its first incarnation as an e-book at the great literary magazine elimae. At the time, I felt like I had been woken up from a dream only to stumble onto a secret body o...
(The soul, Naveen later assured me, cannot be lost—not for Hindus—but will merge, in time, with the Absolute. I thought of Jim, his body traveling the waters of the earth toward some Nirvana.) I was in West Bengal, staying with Naveen and his wife, Raima. He’d offered to introduce me to the presi...
Characters, organizations, events, and places (even those that are actual) are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lock, Norman, 1950– The port-wine stain: with an unfinished tale by Edgar A. Poe / by >Norman ...