Recently one of my students mentioned in class that she felt she included too much detail in her stories, that she never knew how to focus on what to keep and what to leave out.
I responded that she did indeed know how to do this, and that she did so every minute of every day. [...]

When J.M.G. Le Clézio won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2008, I’m sad to have to admit that I was one of those who wondered, “Who the hell is he?”
I read a good deal of international literature, and so I was surprised his name had never crossed my path. Well, my fault, my [...]