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Love Song to Cities

I was reading a book out in the world and an observer asked me what it was. The City We Became, I told her. Then she wanted to know what it was about. “Blah, blah, blah,” I said, ending with, “It’s about New York City.” I have now finished the second, and final, installment in the series by N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make. I...

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I Should Be More Excited

This week, I got the draft cover for When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women. The cover’s cool, particularly for a small press. Sometimes, to me, covers on small presses look like an image grab off Shutterstock. This cover is bespoke, tailored to New Orleans. It’s gonna be awesome. Still, I should be more excited than I am. I’ve seen the...

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Me

Not My Street

I walk out the door of 100 Men Hall and birds sing, as if they’ve been doing that all along. Not one bird, two birds—an orchestra of birds, thrumming beneath the afternoon. I follow the sound and find the masses congregated on a cell tower. I don’t know what kind of birds they are. My sister Marcee goes downtown in Raleigh in the evenings...

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Me

Our Federal Court System

I’m biased, I admit. I grew up in a time when the sea wall against the flood of fascism was our federal court system. In Mississippi in the 1960s, the state had lost its mind over the end of segregation. Officials declared federal law null and void inside Mississippi. According to this myth, anything the state did in response to the...

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