Stephen AltmanSep 22, 20212 minThe Perfect PoemThis is the first full day of autumn. You shouldn't let it pass without reading--preferably aloud, under an old elm with your own true...
Stephen AltmanSep 20, 20212 minCat!I'm embarrassed, I must say, to have forgotten any mention of cats in a story set, in large part, in the Non-Catholic Cemetery and on the...
Stephen AltmanSep 15, 20213 minThe Writer as BlockheadSamuel Johnson famously said,“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” He said this about 250 years ago but it still holds...
Stephen AltmanSep 13, 20212 minThe Woods at NightI lived alone for awhile, earlier this past decade, in a three-room cabin in the West Virginia woods across the Shenandoah River from...
Stephen AltmanAug 25, 20213 min"I feel as if we've met somewhere . . ."I was out walking earlier today, putting steps on the Fitbit before the real August heat set it--when a question popped into my head: ...
Stephen AltmanAug 18, 20212 minThink of this as a first date, but with sonnets.If this were our first date and I offered you a novel consisting of 202 sonnets, would that be a good thing or a bad thing? If you've...