The Missouri Review

What do we listen to as we write or do our creative work? When we raised this question here at The Missouri Review, we encountered (not surprisingly) a diversity of opinions on the subject. From one perspective, music is a instrusive and disruptive force, another artistic voice drowning out one’s own. To others, music serves [...]

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As election season draws to a close with the now customary fits and starts of provisional ballot counting, run-offs, etc., we thought we’d take a look at some of our favorite politicians from literature. Prince or puppet-master, tyrant or revolutionary, the figure of the politician is a canvas upon which we can project our fondest [...]

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We asked the captain what course of action he proposed to take toward a beast so large, terrifying, and unpredictable. He hesitated to answer, and then said judiciously: “I think I shall praise it.”
–Robert Hass, epigram to Praise
Some of our oldest surviving narratives are tales of monsters. Tiamat, Leviathan, Polyphemus,Grendel: monsters feature again and again in texts [...]

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Do we really care what our political candidates read? Well, as devoted readers ourselves, of course we do. And it seems the larger world does too. Some people are afraid of what the candidates read — witness the e-mail circulating that shows a photo of Barack Obama toting a copy of Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World. [...]

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                               Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From Heav’n, for ev’n in Heav’n his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more
The riches of Heav’n’s pavement, trodden gold,
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed
In vision beatific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught,
Ransacked the center, and with impious hands
Rifled the [...]

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Popular perceptions of writing often fixate on the image of the writer at work, and these images are, at their heart, images of place. We see the writer scribbling away by candelight with a quill pen in a mouldering garret, or typing idly while sipping a latte at a hip coffeeshop, or hunched over a bestickered [...]

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Though the ongoing shift to online retailing may have radically changed the way many of us interact with bookstores economically, these emblems of literary culture still hold a powerful sentimental, social, and even aesthetic attraction for us. In this week’s list, we invite you to share your favorite bookstores or memorable bookstore experiences, whether through a [...]

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Today at the University of Missouri, the bells on the Quad and in the student union rang at 8:46 a.m, in commemoration of the victims of Sept. 11, 2001. A mass-email announced this plan to the faculty and students yesterday, but today, some of us who teach between eight and nine were a little unsure how to proceed. [...]

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Welcome to a brand new feature of our blog, our List of the Week. This week, our staff would like to share some of the books they read over the summer of 2008. We welcome our readers’ own recommendations and reactions in the comments below!
1. Joan Acocella, 28 artists and two Saints
Joan Acocella’s collection features essays about writers, dancers, and saints which were [...]

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