Earlier this week, John Fea announced the sad news: Current will end publication on April 4th. And so, between now and then, I will dedicate the final few installments of Blessing of Unicorns not to the usual roundups of essays around the web each week, but rather to looking back at some of the most memorable pieces for me from both Current and the Arena. The paywall is down, so please enjoy!
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I’ll start by cheating–instead of one piece, I’ll commend Elizabeth Stice to you. One of the most eclectic and unpredictably delightful writers at Current and the Arena blog, you just never know what Elizabeth would write about next. But it is always good. I especially enjoyed her “Art of Living” series on this blog–where she profiled some people who were “good at living,” such as Anthony Bourdain, Angela Lansbury, and Beryl Markham. I think this concept would make for a fantastic book!
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If I started by cheating, what’s one more shortcut between friends? I’ve loved every single thing Tom Okie has written for us–or elsewhere. A historian with a soul of a poet, he writes about plants in such a way that you too feel his delight. Tom has been a part of Current from its earliest days in April 2021–check out his piece from that launch month, The Sassafras is Blooming.
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“Can Christians Write?” asked Christian editor and poet Paul Pastor. I find that his moving response pairs well with John Fea’s essay on another aspect of Christians writing for such a time as this: The Responsibility of Christian Intellectuals in the Age of Trump.
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In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a fun story about how I first met my favorite American historian–on Valentine’s Day: Valentine’s Day and the old academic hiring calendar.
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William Tate’s beautiful review of Jane Greer’s stunning poetry collections is a delight: Light and Hope.
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Speaking of Jane Greer, I thoroughly enjoyed her own review essay of Eduard Habsburg’s The Habsburg Way: Ancient Advice for the Twenty-First Century.
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Beatrice Scudeler, Postpartum Depression in America — what is the history of postpartum depression in America, and why does this matter for us today? This is a thoughtful and deeply personal review essay that brings out some policy implications of the difficult history the book narrates.
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We haven’t felt like laughing much this week–but for whenever we do, this essay by M. Elizabeth Carter will do the trick: ‘Tis the Season is the wildest, craziest, funniest Christmas family newsletter you will ever read.
I will also upvote Okie’s “Exotic Invasion.” And it is hard to overstate how delightful M. Elizabeth Carter’s “‘Tis the Season” is. I think of it and laugh to myself all year round.
I went back and read Okie’s “Exotic Invasion.” It is a great piece–a very underrated part of the CURRENT archive. And Carter’s “Tis the Season” was an instant classic!