nina maclaughlin

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On carpentry and college

Age 30, I quit the Phoenix and ended up with a job as an apprentice to a carpenter. Sawing, chiseling, hammering, nail-gunning, tiling, sanding, slotting, framing, hauling, measuring, and sweeping are less obvious outcomes of an undergraduate career in
Finding reward - and real learning - in the ivory tower
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 02, 2011

Bang Ganger

Fireworks in summer — gazing to a blazing sky, mouth wide, sparkle-eyed, the "ahh"s and "oh man"s passing your lips unbidden.
The explosive lives of pyrotechnical professionals
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | June 18, 2010

Grave Spotting

I asked the question this way: "Where would you want to be buried?" Not "do," but "would." That is to say if, by chance, you were to die, unlikely as that might be, where would you want to spend all of nonexistence?
Spooky? A bit, but Massachusetts's cemeteries are also the bucolic, final resting places of many great American writers.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | June 18, 2010

Raw Boswell

David Foster Wallace had a crush on Alanis Morissette. He drank Diet Rite soda by the case. David Lynch changed him.

By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | May 14, 2010

Harvard virginity conference pops its cherry

At what moment are you no longer a virgin? When you get a blowjob? Give one? Give 30 ? When someone fingers you? Oral sex? Anal sex? Enjoyment? Orgasm?
Roe v. Wait Dept.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | May 07, 2010

Words around town

“Every writer I know has trouble writing,” said Joseph Heller. Let that serve as comfort.
Our fair city is chock full of people who write well and are willing to teach you their trade.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | April 30, 2010

Walkin' and talkin'

It counts as some small death, the blinders-on result of routine, when instead of noticing how the light hits the river or the man in front of the noodle shop crouches as if he'd got no bones, your thoughts pinball from your sandwich to an e-mail you wan
Unguided Zen-like tours through NYC
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | March 12, 2010

Small wonders

The books — a quartet of them, each five-by-five, smaller than a CD case — feel like treasures, handsome little volumes, a different gem of a story in each.
Quirks of Literature Dept.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | February 05, 2010

Have a nice future

Blake Butler rains gravel and glass
Blake Butler rains gravel and glass
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 11, 2009

A girl's guide to Boston boys

Autumn opens itself wide with possibility. And Boston begins to crackle with fresh energy (you'll feel it), as the city spreads its arms to thousands of new humans. New brains and bodies abuzz with all sorts of anticipation. The feeling of fall: poten
Stop looking for love in all the wrong places
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 04, 2009

Ghost writer

Salted throughout Kelly Link’s stories, you’ll find Buffy , Bust , Doc Martens, IM-ing, Target, Google, Vicks VapoRub, a T-shirt that reads I’M SO GOTH I SHIT TINY VAMPIRES.
The haunted world of Kelly Link
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | October 02, 2008

Literary import

One of the first things Ladette Randolph tells me is that she’s a fifth-generation Nebraskan, that her great-great grandparents settled there, that the landscape there, particularly in the western part of the state, where her novel is set, is “like being
Ploughshares lands a new editor
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 24, 2008

David Foster Wallace — 1962–2008

A story called “Forever Overhead” by David Foster Wallace appeared in the 1992 edition of Best American Short Stories .
Overhead baggage
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 17, 2008

Hoot and challah(1)

Watching Berman on stage, you couldn’t be sure. Is he into it? Does he like this?
Silver Jews, Middle East Downstairs, September 5, 2008
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 08, 2008

Love us, don't leave us

Let’s skip the sugarcoating. Boston can be a tricky place.
Advice from sadder but wiser Bostonians
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 02, 2008

Out of this world

The worlds Rosenbaum creates feel less like a separate or “alternate” reality and more like a colorful, if complicated, extension of the one we know.
Benjamin Rosenbaum’s The Ant King
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | August 26, 2008

Parlor salon

Spreading the words in Salem
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | July 16, 2008

Exte: Hair Extensions

The film rises above satire with chilling and deftly shot set pieces of hair strangling, flinging, and burying its victims.
Creepy and bizarro hair-raising horror
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | July 16, 2008

My Father My Lord

Volach overdoes the quoting from the Torah, but the intimacy of each shot and the quiet force from each character elevate the film to the level of parable.
Hushed, dun-colored, and beautifully shot
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | June 25, 2008

A Jihad for Love

Homosexuality is illegal and highly punishable in the Muslim world (being stoned to death is a possibility); the faces of many of Sharma’s subjects are blurred to conceal their identity.
Potent subject matter overshadowed by special effects
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | June 25, 2008

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