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The first of several excerpted March Madness blogs, and a sneak preview of what’s to come

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Alan Zaremba, author of The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las Vegas, is in Las Vegas as I write this. He’s keeping his own blog through the weekend, and I’ll be pulling stuff from his blog and posting it here, because he writes a mean running commentary on the chaos that is March Madness in Las Vegas. Here’s a post from last night: I am back in Las Vegas for March Madness, having arrived last night, March 17th, to the quiet rustic country sounds of Las Vegas. Not. I imagine that St. Patrick's Day is … Continue reading The first of several excerpted March Madness blogs, and a sneak preview of what’s to come

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Guest blogger: Kate Flaherty

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Lopate and Loren: Two Reasons to Fall in Love with the Essay All Over Again
By Kate Flaherty

Againstjoiedevivre Let me begin by telling you I love essays. I was one of the two kids in my high school English class who was sorry when the Emerson and Thoreau unit ended. My favorite scene in the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder did not have to do with her move to the great plains in a wagon or riding a wild mustang or meeting her true love Almonzo, but instead with when she was able to go to high school and write her first composition (her topic was “ambition”).

And when I first began working at Prairie Schooner, I loved everything in the magazine—poetry, interviews, stories (what can I say, I’m a bookworm)—but the essays were my favorite sons and daughters. Sydney Lea, Paul Mariani, Nancy Willard, Linda Pastan, JoAnn Beard, Maxine Kumin—these writers were the scientists of literature, examining nature or people or truth with a microscopic eye and sharing their discoveries with their readers. It didn’t matter to me if the essays were about tramping around in the Loreneiseley Vermont woods, following the descent into madness of a brilliant poet, attending a wedding in an Iowa cornfield, or dissecting the meaning behind the random murder of a family member in Detroit. I loved the attention to detail, the connections writers made between one world and others, the thoughtfulness of their meditations, and the fact (and yes, fact is an important word in the world of the essay) that it all was real.

So it should be no surprise I was thrilled Bison Books has republished the collection of essays Against Joie de Vivre by Phillip Lopate, one of the modern masters of the essay form, and republished a collection of essays about poet and literary nonfiction writer Loren Eiseley, Loren Eiseley: Commentary, Biography, and Remembrance, a collection that originally was a special issue of Prairie Schooner edited by Hilda Raz. These are two distinctly different essay collections—the Lopate book is a collection of essays by Lopate, and the Eiseley book is a collection of essays by other writers about Eiseley—and yet they appeal to me for the same reasons. The work in these two books makes me want to revisit writers or worlds I have loved, seek out new writing or new worlds I have yet to discover, and meditate on my own writing and the world I live in right now. 

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Art T. Burton on Black History

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Every February, during Black History Month, I always wonder if the public is becoming more aware of the legacy of Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves and his contributions. We honor many African Americans, men and women, during this month who should be recognized for their contributions to our country’s growth and development. There are many African Americans we should know more about.  Their careers, exploits and adventures are not taught in our grade schools, high schools and universities. One individual we may not know about is Bass Reeves, who served for over thirty years as a federal lawman in the Indian Territory, pre-statehood Oklahoma.

Reeves’ story is remarkable because he started life as a slave in Arkansas and Texas. He came from abject poverty, was never given any semblance of an education and remained illiterate throughout his adult life. Given these handicaps, Reeves was able to persevere and become a legend in his field during his own lifetime. We have had many frontier heroes in our country’s history such as Wyatt Earp, Kit Carson, and Wild Bill Hickock, to name a few. But Reeves stands head and shoulders above the crowd.  Let me tell you why.

Bass Reeves overcame the obstacles of no education as a youth and was plagued with the constant danger of his profession as an adult in law enforcement.  This did not deter him from the success he maintained throughout his career.

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