The Empty Spotlight: On Nicolette Polek’s “Bitter Water Opera”

The Empty Spotlight: On Nicolette Polek’s “Bitter Water Opera”

Bitter Water Opera by Nicolette Polek IN THE PENULTIMATE scene of The Red Shoes (1948), a spotlight strikes the stage. A man presents his hand to a closed door. It opens; there is nothing inside. He spins, and the spotlight spins with him. He leaps, pirouettes, and raises his arms, the spotlight following just beyond […]

Julia Alvarez on Falling in Love with Writing Again

Julia Alvarez on Falling in Love with Writing Again

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter— sign up here . On a Sunday in October, 2021, well into a second year of the pandemic, in the incipient stages of a new novel, I woke up to a total retinal detachment in my right eye. I describe the experience as palm branches […]

Paul Yamazaki on the Important, Joyous Work of Running an Independent Bookstore

Paul Yamazaki on the Important, Joyous Work of Running an Independent Bookstore

Seminary Co-op booksellers and friends have held a number of conversations with legendary bookseller Paul Yamazaki throughout the past two years, in the intoxicating stacks of City Lights, perambulating the streets of San Francisco, and over whiskey tumblers deep into the night. With Paul we’ve edited them into the format of one day and night’s […]

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