Essays (& other writing/speaking)

REPRESENTATIVE PIECES…
with links to these Subject Areas:

  Black Writers,  Chicago Writers, and World Writers

  Reviews and Commentary

  Sermons

 See below for Travel, Memoir, and (at end of page) Poetry.

♦  Go to main page for BOOKS, main page for DIVERSITY.

 Go to the Lead Post for the series The Arts of the Essay. 

 

◊  REVIEWS & COMMENTARIES

 Go to an Overview List of Reviews—or—Commentaries, of which the following are samples.

 

Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in The Godfather“Fate and Style in The Godfather — The respected Sights & Sounds polls ranked this movie the #1 film of all time in 2012, but a class of First-Year students thought it was “boring” and prompted this review, which links the movie’s “slow pace” to the inevitable fate of Michael Corleone.  Read review.

 

Chicago Cubs logo“Come on, Cubs, Play Small Ball” — “Cub fans are the tragic historians of American sport,” the author contends.  This piece about keeping sports in its place and not always swinging for the long ball was originally published in a slightly altered form in  the Chicago Sun TimesRead essay.

 

◊  ESSAYS ON BLACK, CHICAGO & WORLD WRITERS

 Go to a list of Black WritersChicago WritersWorld Writers, of which the following are samples, or the Teaching Diversity main page.

 

Carolyn Marie Rodgers“Activism and Inwardness” — Dr. Guzman’s comments at the memorial service of Carolyn Rodgers, National Book Award nominee and one of Chicago’s greatest writers. What is the relationship between poetic inwardness and social change? Read essay.

 

Raja Rao: One of India's greatest writers“The Saint and the Sage: The Fiction of Raja Rao” — Nobel-nominated Raja Rao was one of India’s greatest writers. Dr. Guzman’s widely reprinted essay is considered one of the finest on Rao and the relationship of Indian religion and philosophy to social change. Read essay, Part 1  / Part 2.

 

NVM 1“As in myth…The Fiction of NVM Gonzalez” — Richard Guzman’s essay on one of the world’s greatest writers is widely considered one of the best on Gonzalez and Philippine culture. It has been reprinted numerous times, including in the University of the Philippine’s commemorative boxed set of Gonzalez’s work, and in Asian American Writers, where editor Harold Bloom (Yale University) assembled his pick of the best 15 modern essays on the subject. Read essay, Part 1  / Part 2  For more on Filipino Culture go Here for an essay and video on the Philippines’ “Concert King and Queen.”  And see below for a link to “Welcome to the International Hotel,” a story of Filipino radicalism in the U.S.

 

 CREATIVE NON-FICTION, TRAVEL & MEMOIR:

RRG-radical-1“The Accidental Radical” — A wry take on a very serious time in American history and the author’s “accidental” part in it. It’s the early 70’s at the University of California, Berkeley, a hotbed of protests against the wars in Southeast Asia, and somehow the restaurant chain Long John Silvers suddenly gets involved. This essay is part of one of Dr. Guzman’s latest projects, a book of short stories and essays on the fate of radicalism in the United States. Read this essay.  You may also read another part of this project—one in a decidedly different tone—tentatively titled “Welcome to the International Hotel.”

 

MixingItUp web thumb

“Miscegenation and Me” — lauded as an essay “in which an interweaving of autobiography and theory leads to unexpected and insightful commentary”—is Richard Guzman’s deep exploration of interracial relationships.  It appeared in the book Mixing It Up and speculates on a new age of the hybrid.  Read essay, Part 1 / Part 2.

 

 Read more on Diversity.  Go to Teaching Diversity page.

 

St. Sophia's Greek Orthodox Church, London

 

“Fear of Pigeons & Churches”—Walking the Queen’s Flower Walk in London, the author discovers (he’s sure) the inspiration for Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, though why English churches remain relatively empty remains a puzzle.  This is one of a series of pieces on London.  Read essay.

 

Read Remembering London series.  Go to Teaching Diversity page.

 

◊  POETRY:

PoetryDr. Guzman is also a published poet.  Read some of his poems, poems from students and colleagues, and his commentary on poetry and poets.  Go to a list of poems and commentaries on poetry.

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