May 2020 – Ann S. Epstein Writer

Essay on Cultural Appropriation Published in SPILL IT!

My essay “Theirs or Ours? Who Owns Culture? Appropriation on the Docket” is now online in the May 2020 issue of Vine Leaves Press SPILL IT! The essay decries blanket accusations of cultural appropriation and argues that culture belongs to everyone. Examples are drawn not only from creative pursuits, but everyday life such as what we cook, the music we listen to, the clothes we wear, and how we celebrate special occasions. Please use the buttons at the bottom of the essay to share and voice your opinion. Find more of my thoughts about writing in ESSAYS and REFLECTIONS.

Why writers write: “I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.” – Ray Bradbury

What I’m Reading: The Glass Hotel: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel

My Amazon and Goodreads review of The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (Rating 3) – All Surface. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel is promoted as a “Bernie Madoff” novel, the story of a Ponzi scheme that robbed investors of their life savings. In fact, only the last third of the book focuses on the crime and its fallout, while even those pages are a missed opportunity to probe the mind of an individual who blithely sustains such a fraud for decades. Other than a few paragraphs in which we hear the lame, and patently untrue, justification concocted by his sleek lawyer, the criminal remains a cipher to us. So do the rest of the characters: the poor but beautiful quasi-trophy wife who remains willfully unaware so she can relish the perks of wealth; the various enablers; and the victims. Mandel is a good observer of details, but her portraits are all surface. This hotel’s glass is a one-way mirror, reflecting outward and denying entry. As a reader and fiction writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I believe it’s that entry into the human mind that makes a book worth checking into.

A one-way mirror with nary a peek inside

Why writers read: “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or tools) to write. Simple as that.” – Stephen King

The Blue Nib: The Write Life Publishes “Revival”

I’m happy to announce that my essay “Revival” was published by The Blue Nib in its online feature The Write Life at https://thebluenib.com/revival/. Here’s the log line: “Revival” investigates the literary and psychological reasons why writers revisit and revise very old stories they once considered finished, refuting the charge that it’s because they have nothing new to write about. Read more at my website on the page ESSAYS.

The Blue Nib, a print and digital journal for new and established writers

Why writers write: “To find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.” – George Orwell

Amid COVID-19 Learn History Through Fiction: Flummoxed by Spanish Flu: A Recap

For the past month, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve posted quack remedies recommended during the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak. Here’s an alphabetical recap of the most outlandish: breath mints, camphor balls, hot sulfur fumes, malted milk, massages, onions, paw paws, petroleum jelly, sneezing, toothpaste, vinegar baths. Your favorite(s)? Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).