Essays/Op
A Letter to Students on Why We Read The Odyssey
I’ve been full-time substitute teaching English at Harvard-Westlake, my Alma mater, for six weeks now, lecturing on The Odyssey and covering Creative Writing. A few of my 9th graders have asked my why we read the epic piece, and I thought I’d write them a letter response. Here it is: — 4 March, 2010 To my dear... »
Superstition
I’ve got a lot of figurines. Stuff to which I’ve ascribed certain characteristics (but I do that to everything). I bought this beautiful cloisonne owl in an antique shop in Montreal. Pretty cool place–the city and the store. I saw the owl and thought “how awesome. it’s black and red on one side, yellow and white... »
Sympathy
The truth was, she couldn’t really imagine what it would feel like to be them. The truth truth was, she didn’t really want to. In a fit of fleeting empathy, she’d tried, she’d tried to close her eyes, put stoppers in her ears, refrain from what her fourth grade teacher once called “verbalization.” It... »
Riding the Devil’s Highway with Death, Desolation and Perhaps Accountability
Of course, he’ll tell you up front that half plus one died. But you need not wait for his report: the back cover will supply the same one before you read a single page. That the number of Mexicans crossing the border illegally continues to soar is an understatement. That 26 attempted to do so in... »
Protected: The Miseducation of L.A.’s Youth
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. »
One Chord Redemption
Granted, I am a heterosexual female. Perhaps my view on the matter simply cannot be trusted. Perhaps. But, on the other hand, just chalk it up to a love (sense?) of aesthetics—rife with all the attendant observational neuroses you’d expect that love (sense?) to espouse—and maybe the trust will come. So. Imagine you’re walking down the... »
Proof of [Having a] Life
![Proof of [Having a] Life](http://deborahstokol.com/wp-content/themes/magazine-basic/thumb.php?src=http://deborahstokol.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/warped-recursion-300x228.jpg&h=80&w=80&zc=1&q=80)
Reported October-November 2008, Written November 2008 *Joanna is not her real name. Were I simply to click through her Facebook photos, I would say Joanna Reginald* lives a life of charmed leisure. In picture after picture of the more than 4,000 she has up, I see the blonde with a frayed bob cut luxuriating in hot tubs,... »