The Sun Interview

Brewing Up Trouble: Chip Berlet On The Tea Party And The Rise Of Right-Wing Populism
“Right now there are large numbers of people who believe arguments that a high-school student with one course in logic could disprove. It’s fine to believe something on faith in religion, but it’s bad in a democracy.”
By David Barsamian

Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

Girl, Ruined
Remembering the baby boy she gave away
By Lee Strickland

Pink Suitcases
The day Mom ran out
By John Frank

Under The Moonflower Tree
The girl across the street
By Poe Ballantine

How I Went Punk
And why having a long white beard didn’t stop me
By Sparrow

Fiction

Let Us Rejoice And Be Glad
“I’m whispering into the phone in my mother’s kitchen, volume and timidity left over from high school, thirty-two years and two husbands ago. I’ve been home three hours, and already I’m looking for a way out.”
By Linda McCullough Moore

Poetry

Great Plain
By Kevin C. Powers

Readers Write

Teenagers
Fearing one, teaching one, being one
Personal stories by our readers

Departments

Sy Safransky's Notebook
“If I care so much about the environment, why did I fly to New York to visit old friends?”

Sunbeams
“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories.”

“Power is temporary; it comes into being, and it goes out. Great monuments that look as if they will stand forever decay and fall.”

More

Editorial Associate Luc Saunders writes: “I think any artist interested in the social context of his or her work would do well to read this interview. Howard Zinn and David Barsamian ‘wax poetic’ on social change. Poetry, folk lyrics, and quotes from classic literature abound in this tribute to the powerful pairing of human creativity and social engagement.”

Jane Churchon’s essay “The Dead Book” [February 2009] was selected for The Best American Essays 2010 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Churchon is a registered nurse whose writing has been published in The Sun, Berkeley Fiction Review, and a number of anthologies.

Best American also listed four essays from The Sun as “Notable Essays.” The writers whose work received this distinction are:

Poe Ballantine, “The Fine Art of Quitting” [April 2009]
Patricia Brieschke, “All of Me” [March 2009]
Michelle Cacho-Negrete, “Stones” [April 2009]
Laura Esther Wolfson, “Proust at Rush Hour” [March 2009]

Our congratulations to the authors.

More than 150 groups of Sun readers meet regularly to discuss the latest issue of the magazine, or write, or both. Groups have recently formed in:

To view the complete list of Sun groups, or to start your own, click here.

1. Farmed Out: Wes Jackson On The Need To Reinvent Agriculture
   Interview by Fred Bahnson
   (October 2010)
2. Slowing Down
   Personal stories by our readers
   (October 2010)
3. Through A Glass Darkly: Miriam Greenspan On Moving From Grief To Gratitude
   Interview by Barbara Platek
   (January 2008)
4. The Stew
   Fiction by Manuel Martinez
   (October 2010)
5. The Silent Mind: An Interview With Jehangir Chubb
   Interview by Sy Safransky
   (July 1981)