iris mónica vargas

Advice About How to Write a Great Essay, by Iris Monica Vargas as heard from author Alan Lightman (Mr. G, Einstein’s Dreams) The following notes were taken during a writing seminar at MIT as part of the Science Writing Program. Writer and theoretical physicist Alan Lightman was addressing the question of how to produce an effective essay, through a discussion of writer Annie Dillard’s work. “Annie Dillard, for example, is a voracious reader, and she brings her readings into her writing. […]

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by Iris Monica Vargas The sunrays stream forlornly – the river of light bounded by the silky drapes of the window it crosses. A woman sits at the elegant mahogany table that lies in front of the window. Her face is poorly made up, in the manner of a women or a girl who  knows little about cosmetics. Her makeup is dry, and in some areas darkened, like mud.  And when Joyce Carol Oates wakes up, she is agitated, her heart “beating […]

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“Advice I heard from author/physicist Alan Lightman, “edited by Iris Monica Vargas 1. A book review is a piece that is contemplative. 2. Before writing a book review, spend at least two hours with the book; to get acquainted, you should read it more than once. 3. The first two reviews you write should not be negative reviews. 4. Read all the articles written by the author of the book you are reviewing, or read the other books she has […]

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by Iris Mónica Vargas Somewhere during the last hours of July, maybe in the afternoon, perhaps earlier, an unknown man made the same decision he had been making for the last fifteen years of his life. Escaping his native country, perhaps Brazil or Peru, El Salvador, Mexico or Guatemala, he had come to see with his own eyes the luminosity of the land of freedom, to feel against his skin the temperature of its soil, the aroma of its grass […]

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