Category Open Letters

An Open Letter to Noam Chomsky

Dr. Chomsky, I recently watched “Manufacturing Consent,” a documentary on your career. Some of it – your highly problematic concept of freedom for example – was familiar from my previous studies. Much more was breathless panegyric on the part of the documentary maker. However, the part that convinced me to write this letter concerns the […]

A Letter to My Students

Dear Students,   Welcome back to Mokwon University. I hope you had a wonderful vacation and I hope you’re rested for the new semester but what I really hope is that you take the opportunity to do something cool in 2016. It’s true that cool stuff is more fun but that’s not my biggest reason […]

An Open Letter to My Readers

Dear Readers, I’m sure you’ve seen articles in which writers explain their struggles to find inspiration. I’m sure you’ve seen articles where writers explain how, crushed as they are under unbearable work loads and familial burdens unequaled by Atlas himself, it’s just so hard to find time to bless you all with another glorious tome […]

An Open Letter About Barbarian Hordes

Dear Dan Carlin, You are ruining my life. I have responsibilities. I have a job, and a side job, and another side job. I should be doing more writing. I should be sleeping more and I should definitely be organizing my house more. But no, you are swallowing up all my free time with your […]

An Open Letter to Joelle Fraser

Joelle Fraser is a memiorist and (soon to be) novelist. She has been published by Random House and Counterpoint Press to critical acclaim. She is also my editor. This interview will cover her first book, “The Territory of Men.” The Territory of Men follows a young Joelle as her mother bounces from man to man […]

Mohsin Hamid Replies to My Open Letter

The first in my series of open letters was addressed to Sinead O’Connor. It consisted of my thoughts regarding her and Miley Cyrus’ little “poison to feminism except we aren’t sure what feminism stands for” feud. I really doubted I would get a response from either participant and, considering the level of maturity in Ms. […]

An Open Letter to Mohsin Hamid

Dear Mr. Hamid, I would like to start by saying that you are my favorite living author and that, since Carlos Fuentes’ death in 2012, you are facing very little competition. Indeed, your novels, short stories and essays are some of the biggest influences on my own writing. I sometimes quasi-seriously feel that, when my own books […]