1. Sometimes I believe we are being tested

Chekhov's way of dying

A bachelor uncle

Winter in September

Wideman's welcome

The lonely voice

Stray thoughts on Kafka

Eudora Welty, badass

Walser on Mission Street

On the beauty of not writing, or, An unnecessary homage to Juan Rulfo

2. Let me cook you an egg

Upper Moose Lake, 1990

My father's gloves

Unforgivable

While reading Imre Kertész

Under all this noise

Hit and run

Carter on boredom

Shameless impostors

The infinite passion of Gina Berriault

Since the beginning of time

Surviving the lives we have

Every grief-soaked word

A black boy, a white boy

A small note from Haiti

3. And here you are climbing trees

Mad passionate true love

Frederick the Great

An American writer: Victor Martinez

Cheever in Albania

All lives are interesting

Sisters and brothers

Parting

What feels like the world

Virgie walking away

Cincinnati, 2001

Salter

Early morning thought on Ahab

All fathers are fictional

Ronald A. Orner

Letter from New Melleray, Iowa

A palm-of-the-hand story

Night train to Split

Father's death: the final version