D. A. Hosek

Just another writer

  • “A Pilgrimage”: The Story Behind the Story

    “A Pilgrimage” is one of those stories that originated by reading off the page. In this instance it was a Mexican short story that I was reading in Spanish. I don’t remember the story details very well, other than being somewhat lost in the Spanish. As a consequence I began imagining the story that became “A…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Uwem Akpan

    The light surrounded him like a halo that was too big for a saint and had to be shared by all who were near. Uwem Akpan, “Say You’re One of Them.” 

  • Beautiful Sentences: Victor LaValle

    He wasn’t about to be that black guy. (You know, the one who scouts ahead and gets his ass sliced in two. Somewhere near the first ten minutes of the horror movie. Although, to be fair, moviemakers have largely stopped that practice. Now there’s usually one amiable but forgettable white person who dies first, and…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Christopher Isherwood

    But we, most of us, lose our sense of proportion in the presence of a nun; and George, thus exposed at short range to this bride of Christ in her uncompromising medieval habit, finds himself becoming flustered, defensive. Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man.

  • Beautiful Sentences: Brenda Peynado

    We knew full well that hate did not require an initial offense. Only original sin, only being born. Brenda Peynado, “The Whitest Girl.”

  • Beautiful Sentences: Louis Erdrich

    Mine is not a church of the saved, but a church of the lost. Louise Erdrich, Future Home of the Living God.

  • Beautiful Sentences: Pascal Mercier

    Of the thousand experiences we have, we find language for one at most and even then this was merely by chance and without the care it deserves. Buried under all the mute experiences are those unseen ones that give our life its form, its color, and its melody. Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon.

  • The Big Countdown

    This year’s life expectancy number is 85 which is down from last year but up from two years ago.  As I think about the last year, I note that I’ve had a lot of fiction acceptances and a poetry acceptance. I’m beginning to feel like I’ve hit my stride as a writer, although there is,…

  • Beautiful Sentences: Siel Ju

    We listened to the teenager next door with his basketball in the driveway, two quick bounces each time, followed by a lonely thump off the backboard. Siel Ju, Cake Time.