Brief Encounters

Highly Eccentric Characters

“Every biography is a work of artifice—it creates a narrative out of life, which is messy, unpredictable, contradictory, and mostly private.”

January 28, 2023

Beauty and Utility

“A well-executed building or inviting public space can bring people together in ways that strengthen our communal values and at the same time make us more aware of our individuality.”

January 21, 2023

Man About the House

“It would be good for voters’ confidence in democracy if there were a clearer connection between what people vote for in an election and what a governing party is able to do once it wins power.”

January 14, 2023

‘A Trusted Guide’

“I’ve always had a lot more to say about race and inequality than the four corners of any case would allow”

January 7, 2023

‘Glories Stream from Heaven Afar’

“Whether Creation is thought of as the act of God evoked in Genesis or as the great singularity that has yielded, for our purposes, everything, the moment of Creation never ended.”

December 25, 2022

The Foolscap Pages

“I never stopped writing: diaries, plays, even, God help me, poetry.”

December 24, 2022

The Intertidal Zone

“‘The environment’ is an intimate subject. What we go to nature in search of, whether it sparks feelings of homeliness, duty, estrangement, or enchantment—this isn’t a neutral, intuitive matter.”

December 17, 2022

Late Style

“I’m interested in the shapes of careers, in the way that one book answers and builds on its predecessors, responds to the shelf that’s stretched out behind it.”

December 10, 2022

My Winnipeg

“When I go back now, I find myself overwhelmed by the beauty of the snowy landscape. I think that is where I truly began my practice as an artist.”

December 3, 2022

The Snoop

“The easiest part of writing criticism is the immersive reading in and around the subject. The hardest part is the opening paragraph.”

November 26, 2022