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October 16, 2019
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Roberta Silman

Roberta Silman is the author of the story collection Blood Relations and of three novels, Boundaries, The Dream Dredger, and Beginning the World Again. She writes regularly for the online magazine The Arts Fuse.

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The Swiveling Light of Truth

Remembering Grace Paley and her wise, fierce, funny, sad, innovative short stories

by Roberta Silman | Monday, September 01, 2008
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Without Wendy

by Roberta Silman | Sunday, March 01, 2009
The Sugar Road

The Sugar Road

George has never spoken a word. He's not like other boys. What risk is there in trying to unlock the secrets of his silence?

by Roberta Silman | Monday, March 25, 2013
Smarty Pants Podcast

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THIS WEEK’S ARCHIVE PICK

2nd Look

What Does Columbus Day Really Mean?

by William J. Connell

Whether you celebrate Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Discoverers’ Day, or Native Americans’ Day, historian William J. Connell observes that, in the end, this controversial civic holiday is just that: a holiday. In his essay “What Columbus Day Really Means,” Connell writes that President Benjamin Harrison created the holiday in 1892 to honor both Native Americans and the many immigrants who were only then arriving in the country. “It was to be a national holiday that was not about the Founding Fathers or the Civil War, but about the rest of American history,” Connell writes—a day for celebrating the country and all its people. Sounds to us like a pretty good reason to take the day off of work.