Author: Threepenny Editor

Vivian Gornick

Nadine Gordimer

Darwinwas desperatefor proofthat animals wept.It wasn’t enoughthat houseflies humin the key of For that Dall sheep keeplifelong their horns,adding like treesa ring each year.Darwin wanted tears. Being the onlyspecies that…

I am againstsymmetry, he said. He was holding in both handsan unbalanced piece of wood that had beenvery large once, like the limb of a tree:this was before its second…

My teacher was holding a brushbut then I was holding a brush too—we were standing together watching the canvasout of the corners of whicha turbulent darkness surged; in the centerwas…

1. The sun is setting behind the mountains,the earth is cooling.A stranger has tied his horse to a bare chestnut tree.The horse is quiet-he turns his head suddenly,hearing, in the…

I. Halfway through the sentenceshe fell asleep. She had been tellingsome sort of fable concerninga young girl who wakens one morningas a bird. So like life,said the person next to…

Today I went to the doctor—the doctor said I was dying,not in those words, but when I said itshe didn't deny it— What have you done to your body, her…

The sun rises over the mountain.Sometimes there's mistbut the sun's behind it alwaysand the mist isn't equal to it.The sun burns its way through,like the mind defeating stupidity.When the mist…

The building's brick, so the walls get warm in summer.When the summer goes, they're still warm,especially on the south side—you feel the sun there, in the brick,as though it meant…