I’ve admired Canadian poet, essayist, Greek and Latin scholar, and librettist, Anne Carson for a long time now. I think I first heard about her as a professor of classics at McGill University who was…| Brick
Hongkong seems very quiet, but outsiders do not know whether the Chinese who live here are comfortable or not.Men communicate their thoughts and feelings through writing, yet most Chinese nowadays are still unable to express themselves this way. This . . . Source| Brick
I first came across the work of Colm Tóibín when I was doing a special series on Ireland for Writers & Company some thirty years ago, and I’ve admired him ever since. At the time, he was one of the…| Brick
For thirty-three years, Eleanor Wachtel hosted CBC’s Writers & Company. Each week, her hour-long conversations—generous, probing, serious, illuminating—opened windows from every corner in Canada into the worlds of artists, writers, photographers and filmmakers, among them Carol Shields, Mordecai Richler, . . . Source| Brick
The shop’s sign was posted near the roof for maximum visibility from the parking lot and motorway, but because I walked on the strip mall’s sidewalk, under the overhang, I passed the door once, twice…| Brick
Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean Juan José Arreola Paris, 20 September 1954 Dear Arreola, Several weeks ago Emma sent me your two books, and when I opened them I found a dedication that…| Brick
On May 14, 2024, at the Toronto Reference Library, I spoke to Claire Messud about her new novel, This Strange Eventful History. To prepare, I watched some of her interviews. I wondered what kinds of questions she asked when . . . Source| Brick
Joanna Biggs’s essay “Smarrimento,” featured in the winter 2025 issue of Brick, opens with a description of Monica Vitti’s sleepy eyes, her ruffling hands, her perfectly sculpted hair—hair so animate…| Brick
Say woodcutter, not tyrant. Repetition, not apocalypse. Love, not disappearance.Melancholy, not depression. Derrida says that the melancholic is one who refuses to forget. That melancholy is necessary. I have learned to keep my . . . Source| Brick
A crescent moon in winter was a symbol of melancholy. A man with shoulders like an owl’s was assumed to be cruel. A woman’s eyebrows were commonly compared to hills in spring. After a failed coup…| Brick