Alissa Wilkinson founded The Curator in 2008 and was its editor for two years. She now teaches writing and humanities a The King's College and edits Fieldnotes. She has an MA in humanities and social thought from New York University and will graduate from Seattle Pacific University with an MFA in creative nonfiction in 2013. Her writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Books & Culture, Paste, The Other Journal, Q Ideas, The Gospel Coalition, WORLD, Relevant, and other magazines.
Alissa lives in Brooklyn with her husband Tom in a tiny apartment stuffed with books and photography equipment. She loves sci-fi, scotch, empty notebooks, cheap ramen noodles, and getting lost on purpose in unfamiliar cities.
The Forecast: A Counterfeit Memoir About Everything You Know is True By Christy Tennant Caroline Ferdinandsen’s debut novel is about the familiar struggle of the ordinary. Getting Out By Colin Campbell A photo essay on the need to get beyond the Inside Me. Who was Neda Agha-Soltan? By Josh Cacopardo The Internet made Neda Agha-Soltan […]
Another 365-Days Dress Project
From the Times Magazine: This Year’s Model. What’s immediately striking about clicking through the day-by-day photos on the Uniform Project is that two months into wearing the same thing every day, Matheiken is still way more stylish than you are. Part of this owes to the dress: while it’s in the basic mold of a […]
From the Wall Street Journal: Obama is changing the art on the White House walls. Their choices also, inevitably, have political implications, and could serve as a savvy tool to drive the ongoing message of a more inclusive administration. The Clintons received political praise after they selected Simmie Knox, an African-American artist from Alabama, to […]
From Vanity Fair: James Wolcott on Cultural Snobbery. In New York City (can’t speak for the other metro systems across this great land), every subway car is a rolling library, every ride an opportunity to spy on the reading tastes of fellow passengers and make snap judgments that probably wouldn’t hold up in court. Single […]
From the New Yorker: Malcolm Gladwell on Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Anderson’s reference to people who “prefer to buy their music online” carries the faint suggestion that refraining from theft should be considered a mere preference. And then there is his insistence that the relentless downward pressure on prices represents an iron […]
From Good: The Joys of Absorption. Therein lies the key to my love of Power Yoga. I am told not to think. I am absorbed. This wondrous vacation from my head is also why I love writing. Sounds counter-intuitive, I know. But in an essay, “Why Write?” Alan Shapiro nails this addictive sensation mid-essay. He […]
How to Go to the Zoo By Matt Kirkland You don’t love the zoo. But you should. Here’s how. Connecting Refugees –One Bead at a Time By Rebecca Tirrell Talbot Refugee Beads and Village Gatherings help establish connections and make lasting changes in the life of refugees – and Americans. The High Line –Manhattan’s Newest […]
From Smithsonian Magazine: 35 Who Made a Difference: Wendell Berry. As a farmer, he has shunned the use of tractors and plowed his land with a team of horses. As a poet, he has stood apart from the categories and controversies of the literary world, writing in language neither modern nor postmodern, making poems that […]
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
From The Believer: Dancing About Architecture. I just published a novel about music. Early in the process of writing it, I was warned by a similarly music-obsessive friend that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Since that first somewhat menacing reminder, I’ve heard the line frequently. At first blush, the claim is a […]
Michael Chabon on the wilderness of childhood
From the New York Review of Books: Manhood for Amateurs. Most great stories of adventure, from The Hobbit to Seven Pillars of Wisdom, come furnished with a map. That’s because every story of adventure is in part the story of a landscape, of the interrelationship between human beings (or Hobbits, as the case may be) […]
From the Times Magazine: Home Sweet (Urban) Homestead. In Oakland, where backyard menageries and D.I.Y. charcuterie are the new garage band, the term “urban homesteading” doesn’t need an explanation. “It fits into the Oakland sort of self-defined vibe or aesthetic of doing things from scratch and being kind of hard-core,” she said, tugging at the […]
Sigur Rós Redeems the Music Video By Jenni Simmons In “Glósóli,” Icelandic band Sigur Rós creatively fuses music and cinema, renewing the lost art of the well-made music video. A Human Revolution By Josh Cacopardo The Human Revolution promotes hope, love, and responsibility to your neighbors and your planet, all to a danceable groove – […]
From the Well blog: Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week? The potency of interval training is nothing new. Many athletes have been straining through interval sessions once or twice a week along with their regular workout for years. But what researchers have been looking at recently is whether humans, like that second […]
From the New York Times Magazine: The Overextended Family. Now, I like my parents. A lot. I really do. That’s why I make the 1,500-mile trip to visit them three or four times a year. I did not, however, spend the bulk of my adult life perfecting the fine art of establishing boundaries only to […]
Art's modern intoxication with ugliness
From City Journal: Beauty and Desecration. At some time during the aftermath of modernism, beauty ceased to receive those tributes. Art increasingly aimed to disturb, subvert, or transgress moral certainties, and it was not beauty but originality-however achieved and at whatever moral cost-that won the prizes. Indeed, there arose a widespread suspicion of beauty as […]
In France, tradition is out; le sandwich is in.
From the Washington Post: Le Sandwich Takes a Bite Out of French Tradition. The shifting lunchtime habits, which are more pronounced in large cities such as Paris, are part of a social tug of war in France between the imperatives of a modern industrial economy and a long-cherished tradition of fine food produced and prepared […]
From Image Journal’s Good Letters blog: Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? So it’s no surprise that Salinger’s lawyers are now going after 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, a book written by a pseudonymous Swedish author J.D. California, which is billed as a “sequel” to Catcher in the Rye. Details are sketchy (the book is […]
Upgrade Me By Jonathan Fitzgerald Are we getting better, or just newer? Lost in the Cosmos By Casey Downing The off-Broadway play Night Sky deals with language, selflessness, and a world rearranged. Night In At The Movies By Sarah Hanssen Why – and how – to start a movie night in your home.
From the New York Times’ City Room blog: On Governors I., an Organic Farm With a View. The farm will have close ties to New York Harbor School, which is scheduled to move from Bushwick, Brooklyn, to the island in 2010. The farm will provide produce, and students can volunteer and do science work there. […]
From More Intelligent Life: A review of the “Model as Muse” exhibit at the Met. As the curatorial notes put it, models are those “whose elegant poses and gestures” evoke the attitudes of the day. The show makes clear that this is partly something a model can control and partly something she is simply, ineffably, […]
From the LA Times: The Truth About Writers. But we writers have a secret. We don’t spend much time writing. There. It’s out. Writers, by and large, do not do a great deal of writing. We may devote a large number of hours per day to writing, yes, but very little of that time is […]
From Splice Today: Blogs need to get together if they ever hope to replace the newspaper. If blogs are to fill a void left by newspapers they need to go one step further: get a little Marxist and organize. This is actually already happening-blogs and bloggers that were at first members of a community are […]
From Bookforum: Appreciations of ice cream and cake celebrate the deliciously fattening over the guiltily consumed fake. We also, of course, eat an incredible amount of fake ice cream. Neither author offers a figure, but in a world where 1921’s hit ice-cream novelty, the Eskimo Pie, has been replaced by the Slender Pie (artificially sweetened, […]
A Novice’s Approach to Viewing Art and Thrust Projects’ UNHEIM By Christy Tennant Simple steps to view and appreciate art with humility and understanding. Arancello, orHow One Italian Combats The Summer Heat By Josh Cacopardo Summer getting you down? Make some arancello and celebrate the weather. Fashion Designer AcademicInterview with Made By Rachel By Lindsay […]
From The Atlantic: Why The Economist is thriving while Time and Newsweek fade. Unlike its rivals, The Economist has been unaffected by the explosion of digital media; if anything, the digital revolution has cemented its relevance. The Economist has become an arbiter of right-thinking opinion (free-market right-center, if you want to be technical about it; […]
From the Boston Globe: Why Going for Another Degree Right Now Isn’t As Safe As It Seems. But let’s face it, introspection doesn’t pay the student loan bill. Recently, Harvard University held a seminar on how to handle rejection. Good idea. Learning how to innovate and cope is a skill that will become as crucial […]
America’s Rebellion Against the Car The Philosophy Behind Making Times Square a Public Space By Brian Watkins Times Square was recently turned into a pedestrian mall. What might this mean for the future of American cities – and the automobile? Bee Stung By Kevin Gosa Why we like spelling bees, and what to do if […]
No Country for Old Mades By Alisa Harris No Country for Old Men and Made of Honor assault our sense of justice in very different ways. Tell Me Our Story By Jenni Simmons The Fall is a film of striking beauty that tells an imaginative story of truth. Endless Summer Cinema By Jonathan Fitzgerald Is […]
From the New Yorker: Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing Be Taught? People who take creative-writing workshops get course credit and can, ultimately, receive an academic degree in the subject; but a workshop is not a course in the normal sense-a scene of instruction in which some body of knowledge is transmitted by means of […]
The New Victory Gardens: The micro-farming component is obvious – Sharecropper proves anyone can grow food in the smallest and most challenging of places. But how does Gauthier’s citywide planting qualify as public art? Like Relational Art, she explains, in which “an artist presents circumstances, and it takes viewers to complete it,” Sharecropper will be […]
Departures: The Art of Transformation By Makoto Fujimura The 2008 Academy Award-winning film Departures is both a deep look at death, artistry, and service, and a representation of a new emergence in Japanese filmmaking. The Dehumanization of Sasha Grey By Christy Tennant On Sasha Grey, Rolling Stone‘s double standards, and the victimization of “self-actualized” women. […]
Calling all poets: a poetry competition from our friends at Comment magazine. Comment magazine (www.cardus.ca/comment) invites poets to submit contributions in the form of a rondeau suitable for publication in our September print issue. This will be our fourth annual “Making the Most of College” issue, and the submitted poems should in some way be […]
And now a word from our illustrious publisher. Call for Participation: Reflections of Generosity: Toward Restoration and Peace ’09 August 19 – September 11 MWR Arts Gallery Fort Drum, New York As soldiers and their families come to grips with ongoing deployments, the need for emotional and spiritual healing is greater than ever. Reflections of […]
UNHEIM Opening this Friday in New York
Back in the early days of the Curator, we ran an article on Vienna-based artist Daniel Domig. Domig and his friend Valentin Hirsch have an opening at Thrust Projects in New York this week – if you’re in town, stop by and see Domig’s work in person! Below are details. Jane Kim/ Thrust Projects is […]
Literary tourism and the quest for authenticity
From The Chronicle of Higher Education: ‘You’ve Read the Book, Now Take a Look!’: Indeed, ownership of literary heritage is what’s at stake here. Literary tourism involves a cheap appropriation, an amateurish displacement of the text’s aesthetic sanctity, critics claim. Who shall be in charge of a writer’s reputation? Who are the audiences, the ideal […]
State by State, and How I Made Amends with my Inner Patriot By Jonathan Fitzgerald The places where patriotism and questioning intersect, and where literature can help us reach across a divide. The Rockin’ Key to Familial Harmony By Caleb Seeling You could experience bedtime meltdown – or you could dance. Streaming for Gold By […]
From The Times Higher Education: Lazarus-style comeback. Theology is returning to the intellectual scene, says John Milbank, professor of religion, politics and ethics at the University of Nottingham. “That’s why people like Richard Dawkins are so frightened, and why we’re getting a more militant atheism.” He rattles off a list of renowned philosophers – Alasdair […]
From the Los Angeles Times: It’s Time to Change the NEA’s motto. Now that the high-profile media event is done, and with a provocative new chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts in the pipeline, here’s a suggestion. It’s also symbolic and it’s cost-free too: Let’s change the motto of the NEA.
From The Atlantic: Fashion in Dark Times. New York fashion is mostly a lot of small businesses. Even household-name designers often lack backers, which means that they make twice-yearly gambles (on their fall and spring collections) requiring huge cash outlays-for the most part, fabrics have to be bought, patterns cut, garments sewn, and finishes applied […]
From Art in America: Provisional Painting. For the past year or so I’ve become increasingly aware of a kind of provisionality within the practice of painting. I first noticed it pervading the canvases of Raoul De Keyser, Albert Oehlen, Christopher Wool, Mary Heilmann and Michael Krebber, artists who have long made works that look casual, […]
Cains & Abels Sing Their Heads Off By Rebecca Talbot Chicago-based indie band Cains & Abels embrace both harshness and beauty. Brave New Burger By Kevin Gosa Burgers need regulation, just like junk mortgages. A Dinosaur Crawled Into My Backyard By Brian Watkins Attempts at connecting with nature.
From the Washington Post: With White House Poetry Jam, a New Era Is Spoken For. Some called the event the first White House poetry jam in history. Technically, it was not a “poetry slam,” which is a competition among poets — a form of contest that began in the 1980s in Obama’s home town of […]
Paste magazine is one of the very best voices in pop culture journalism today, with witty and incisive writing on “signs of life” in film, music, books, and more. They don’t play favorites: the best work gets covered, whether it’s by some obscure indie band from flyover territory or a big-name pop star. Their excellence […]
From the New York Times: Producer Is Chosen to Lead Arts Endowment. The appointment, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday, surprised many in the arts world. It ends months of speculation about who would be selected to lead the nation’s largest and most important arts organization. The White House declined to discuss the […]
Creating jobs . . . in the arts
From The Stage: Plan to create up to 10,000 entry-level jobs in [UK] cultural industries. While full details of the scheme have yet to be decided, the first tranche of funding will be released to help create 200 jobs for young people working on music festivals across the UK this summer. It is expected that […]
From the New York Times: Who Put the Lincoln in Lincoln Center? Good Question Surprisingly, after five decades, the origin of the word “Lincoln” in Lincoln Center “is a mystery,” said Judith Johnson, Lincoln Center’s corporate archivist. “It is one of those questions that should have an answer – because so many other places in […]
Mere Beauty By Jenni Simmons Painter Jacob Collins seeks to find a place at the art-world table for classical realism. At Home in Jersey City By Jonathan Fitzgerald Jersey City offers the amenities of the big city – with a bit of home. The Art of Coexistence By Alissa Wilkinson Two plays currently on Broadway […]
The Art of CoexistenceGod of Carnage and reasons to be pretty
We forget, sometimes, the thin veneer that sometimes separates our private lives from our public ones.
The Last Great Newspaper Movie? By David Sessions State of Play romanticizes the glory days of the dying press. Ten Things To Do During the Recession Besides Getting a Nose Job By Christy Tennant Some suggestions (and no-nos) for the recently unemployed. Recording Reality By Sarah Hanssen An interview with award-winning documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud.
From the New York Times: As Manhattan Bus Rolls, Driver Polishes His Pavarotti. There are days when the shock absorbers do not cushion the ride, and there is probably gum under some of the seats. But the acoustics are pretty good, and he finds time to concentrate. “I sit at red lights, open up a […]