A Blog by Ken Langer
In India philosophy, the word “vāsanā” denotes past mental impressions that are imprinted in the subconscious. Vāsanās are likened to seeds that sprout into thoughts, behavior, and personality traits.
Some years ago, The New Yorker ran a cartoon of an equestrian statue in the center of a public square. A large, austere-looking soldier was perched high on his mighty steed, the American flag fluttering behind him. Think Napoleon, poised on a white stallion overlooking the battlefield at Austerlitz. The caption read something like: Valedictorian, […]
“Dear Mom and Dad, I am still having a GREAt time.” Like a refrain that echoes throughout a song or poem, these words begin almost all of the letters I wrote to my parents in 1961 and 1962 from Camp Walt Whitman in Pike, New Hampshire. The missives were stashed away in a box I […]
Dryad Press publisher (and co-founder of The Writer’s Center) Merrill Leffler talks with Ken Langer, author of A Nest for Lalita.
When I lived in Varanasi as a college student, I took tabla lessons from the late Kedar Nath Bhowmick, a professor of mathematics at Benares Hindu University. Here he is, on the left, in 1970. The other photo is me last February when I visited his home 50 years later, only to find out […]
Okay, Raymond Carver, you may be a great writer, but you really blew it with your short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. I like the first part where two couples are arguing about the nature of love. Especially when Terri talks about her ex-hubby Carl, who used to drag her […]