ARCHIVE

February 17, 2022
I wanted to get us to Friendship Village, the rehabilitation center on the outskirts of Hanoi, founded by an American veteran and once again Hai had to be persistent and not give up on the mission.
By Susan Dixon
February 16, 2022
It is March 1969 in a place west of Saigon that the men called the Tobacco Field. They also called it Ambush Valley. Civilians were rare here, so when this group of farmers walked nearby, Captain Meager (hands on
By Susan Dixon
February 12, 2022
This was an introduction to Seeking Quan Am that I kept for a long time before going in a different direction. Mark Smith and I were sitting with a friend in a coffee shop in Ithaca, N.Y. waiting for a
By Susan Dixon
September 7, 2020
Women are not less fierce than men, less dedicated to ideals, less passionate about beliefs. But women, at least when they are not trying to succeed in a man’s world, write differently than men. They use language differently. Their
By Susan Dixon
December 3, 2019
This is another story about Coyote, who is entirely a literary device, albeit one with a personality. “Tell me a story,” I demanded. ‘Demanded’ might be too strong a word because I meant it as a compliment. Coyote tells such good
By Susan Dixon
December 3, 2019
There is something very satisfying about writing on a typewriter—rolling the paper in, the active little clicks, ripping the paper out if what you wrote didn’t work …. Or just ripping the paper out if it was time to
By Susan Dixon
November 22, 2019
A year ago I sat on a folding chair in an ordinary meeting room listening to poetry. The room had a table with the usual hospitality contributions – bottles of juices and water, crackers, a tray of vegetables and
By Susan Dixon
September 6, 2019
PROMPT: “How is truth manipulated to serve the ends of war-making? Why would lies be thought to be necessary? Are lies ever justified? What is a lie, anyway? Are lies something political opponents tell? Does “our side” lie? Do
By Susan Dixon
June 22, 2019
Many of the soldiers who fought in Vietnam saw it: the extraordinary beauty of the land they had come to destroy. They took note of the rich natural diversity, lush growth, and dazzling colors – and then called in
By Susan Dixon
June 15, 2012
A friend is writing about stories in her family that turn out, upon investigation, not to be true. That made me wonder if the stories in my family that I always accepted as Truth, might have happened some other
By Susan Dixon
May 3, 2012
The men sit, brooding, waiting, exhausted. If they are told to do something, they are ready to do it, their equipment close by. Their weapons and personal belongings – is there a distinction? – are bundled into packs. For
By Susan Dixon