“We read and perform Shakespeare because, at this particular moment, this play speaks to us as no other play can or will; because we have a hunger to create and share this particular event with other human beings.” With this... Read More

Young Ping-Li wanted to make the best kite ever-one that would fly higher than any other kite. He went to the kite shop owned by Mr. Fo to buy the paper, sticks, and string that he needed. Mr. Fo gave Ping-Li a warning: “You must paint... Read More

“Please let there be eggs,” Mercedes wished as she checked the chickens’ nests. Except for one small egg, there was nothing. Eggs were valued more than gold in West Berlin during the Russian blockade. Perhaps the chickens were... Read More

“What has 16 wheels and a trunk? Tarra—the world’s only roller skating elephant,” read the headlines of the Los Angeles Times in the spring of 1981. Tarra displayed her skating skills in shows around the world, in Korea at an... Read More

Hotbed of feminism, or exclusive male retreat? Dependent on cerebrations and fact, or awash in sloppy sentimentality? A combination of extremes? Just what is science fiction from women’s point of view? Isaac Asimov and other icons have... Read More

“We need a new language for pain so we don’t experience it as simply a message delivered by an insulted nerve. Instead let us read pain as a story of all that has happened in our lives.” The author, a widely published poet and... Read More

Many books about witchcraft focus on spells for women in the “maiden” and “mother” phases, that is, women in their twenties and thirties. This feisty, in-your-face book celebrates the crones of witchcraft, stating that the... Read More

Whether or not one verbalizes a like or dislike of opera, everyone, according to the author, has been “raised culturally on something very close to opera”—the movies. Elements of opera are evident in a wide variety of films,... Read More