June 24, 2018

Congratulations to Artist Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord!

Posted by in News
Congratulations to Artist Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord!

Fictional Cafe member and former featured artist Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord has an exhibition in Boston at the beautiful Arnold Arboretum Hunnewell Building Visitor Center through July 22nd. Her Spirit Books combine the aesthetics of the natural world with the art of bookmaking. Susan displays these beautifully and spiritually powerful books all across the country.   Susan was also recently interviewed on WGBH, the local PBS station in Boston, about her work and its meaning to her. Listen to her on the WGBH “Arts This Week” feature to learn more. You can follow Susan’s work on her website as well on Instagram.      

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June 22, 2018

Friday Night Audio Adventure: “Magus Elgar”

Posted by in Audio Arts, Podcasts
Friday Night Audio Adventure: “Magus Elgar”

For the next three weeks, Fictional Cafe is proud to entertain you with an audio adventure starring Magus Elgar. It’s a comedic fantasy that will entertain your socks off, inspired by the works of Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Simon R. Green, J.K. Rowling, and other great authors. After a magical spell throws an eccentric magi named Magus Elgar and his student into a world of science, they must apply all of their skills to find the scientific tools that have appeared in their world – before they end up in the wrong hands. Please click on the arrow below to listen to the first episode of “Magus Elgar.” If you’re dying to know more, please visit the website by clicking here. We’ll play episodes 2 and 3 consecutively on the next two Friday nights.

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June 12, 2018

Barista Rachael Allen Moves on to The Atlantic

Posted by in News
Barista Rachael Allen Moves on to The Atlantic

Our congratulations to Rachael Allen on her graduation from Bowdoin College and her new job as an Editorial Fellow at The Atlantic, one of the best, most respected American magazines. The Atlantic Monthly was co-founded by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson in Boston in 1857. Rachael will be hanging up her barista hat to take this great stepping-stone into her burgeoning writing career, moving to Washington, D.C., to work on The Atlantic print magazine, fact checking, copy editing, pitching stories, and more. We are going to miss her smiling countenance, superb writing, and knowing we would get every assignment from her on deadline. Rachael has been a Fictional Café contributor since her sophomore year in college, writing engaging pieces on the challenging world of English majors in college, the difficulty finding creative time in this busy…

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June 3, 2018

Blake Brasher: Creating A Sense of Wonder

Posted by in Fine Art
Blake Brasher: Creating A Sense of Wonder

Blake Brasher is a visual artist working in mixed media painting and installation. His colorful abstractions are reflections on the nature of reality and what it is like to be a thinking being in a universe that is at once beautiful and terrifying. Blake came to Cambridge to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997 and has lived in the Boston area ever since. Feeling pulled between the fine arts and the sciences, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Art and Design at MIT while cross-registering for painting classes at Harvard and doing robotics research at the MIT Media Lab. While Blake would not mind earning fame and fortune from his artwork, his primary interest is in the work itself and in exposing his work to as large an audience as possible. He…

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May 24, 2018

Philip Roth, 1933-2018

Posted by in Book Reviews
Philip Roth, 1933-2018

“No two words are more precious to a writer than, ‘You’re free.’” – Philip Roth The Ghost Writer (1979) Zuckerman Unbound (1981) The Anatomy Lesson (1983) The Prague Orgy (1985) The Counterlife (1986) American Pastoral (1997) I Married a Communist (1998) The Human Stain (2000) Exit Ghost (2007) Novotny’s Pain (1980), published by Sylvester & Orphanos The Facts: A Novelist’s Autobiography (1988) Deception: A Novel (1990) Patrimony: A True Story (1991) Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993) The Plot Against America (2004) The Breast (1972) The Professor of Desire (1977) The Dying Animal (2001) Everyman (2006) Indignation (2008) The Humbling (2009) Nemesis (2010) Goodbye, Columbus (1959) Letting Go (1962) When She Was Good (1967) Portnoy’s Complaint (1969) Our Gang (1971) The Great American Novel (1973) My Life as a Man (1974) Sabbath’s Theater (1995)

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May 22, 2018

“The Beginning of a Tradition” by Rachael Allen

Posted by in Writing
“The Beginning of a Tradition” by Rachael Allen

The Beginning of a Tradition  On Friday night, the eve of my best friend’s birthday, we all drive twenty minutes to the ocean. It is 10 p.m. and we are armed with chocolate chip cookies, hot pretzels, cubed cheese, and an assortment of chips from our college’s late night snack offerings in the dining hall. Though it is mid-May, we dress in winter coats and hats, sitting cross-legged in a circle on the dock, a blanket draped over our laps. We look at the stars and laugh about nothing, cheering for my friend when it is finally midnight. This is tradition, even though it is only the second time we have done this. Having known each other less than four years, the traditions my college friends and I practice are echoes of the ones we…

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May 21, 2018

Fictional Cafe Turns 5 Birthday Update

Posted by in News
Fictional Cafe Turns 5 Birthday Update

Hello everyone, here’s a quick birthday update. We are so excited for our Facebook event today, Fictional Cafe Turns 5, and we wanted to make sure everyone has an opportunity to join in the fun. Please visit the event page and wish The Fictional Cafe happy birthday and share a photo of the scenery near you, a historical landmark nearby or simply your smiling face, then tag your location by clicking the “Check In” button so we all can see just how geographically diverse our members are. We hope you all can drop by our event as we serve “Fresh Java” all day long from contributors that span the globe. Here’s a preview of just some of what you’ll see: The kickoff event at Galerie ZonZon in Brest, France with our dear friend Danièle Maguet…

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May 8, 2018

“Seismometers Feverish & Blue” and “My Truth” by Joanne W. James

Posted by in Writing
“Seismometers Feverish & Blue” and “My Truth” by Joanne W. James

SEISMOMETERS FEVERISH & BLUE the clock is black and ticking gold-flecked velvet insidethis mystery earth fringed-edged mycelium push out for miles undergroundone mushroom the entrance to our world mycelium not fragileattuned like seismometerslacey fungalveil holding strong over molten core the core where I live there’s so much difficultyin burning I always took it for grantedthat your heart I’d melt those years my heart was lavain the time of the roosterin the time of the coconutwhen we couldn’t make itto the bed we’d take iton the kitchen floor when the ground moves in incrementsour hearts seismometers feverish and blueI learned that what burns with such intensityhas fragility your mouth my delicacy root hairs that push us out of ourselvesinto another’s arms push us cross country or into outer space    given wingsin the time of acacia…

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May 3, 2018

“I am not a criminal” a poem by Lizzi Lewis

Posted by in Writing
“I am not a criminal” a poem by Lizzi Lewis

I am not a criminal I am ducking my responsibility Before it comes To telling my grandchildren (For I shall have none) That I am the one who did these things;   I am the one who choked the sea With plastic, wrapped conveniently Around everything I could ever need (And some things I didn’t) To keep them sanitary, clean Never mind the lungs and eyes The breaking hearts of those unseen, Never mind the damaged soil Pits of poison, smoke’s toxic roil, Death dripping from the very pores Of those I never knew, never heard of before. It was me.   I am the one who chained the men The women, and the children when I bought the things which owned their lives Paid their captors, swallowed the lies, Ignored the truths I didn’t…

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