Articles Written By Jessica Francis Kane
TMN Contributing Writer Jessica Francis Kane is the author of a story collection, Bending Heaven, and a novel, The Report, which was a finalist for the 2010 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and the Indie Booksellers Choice Award. She lives in New York with her husband and their two children. A new story collection, This Close, has just been published by Graywolf.
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The Business Desk
Entertainment for Women
When it launched, Playboy was a literary power and a force for change. The magazine’s offices also happened to be an interesting place to work—for women. The author interviews her mother about life as a secretary in 1960s New York City.
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Guides to America
Arbotchery
To honor Arbor Day, an illustrated catalog of abuse taking place across the country, in cities large and small, where trees are being hacked, whacked, and chopped into unnatural shapes in the name of power.
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The Non-Expert
Holidays-in-Law
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week, tips for a productive working vacation with your extended family.
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Personal Essays
Caught Telling Fiction
The gap between literary and historical fiction is mostly a marketing ploy—at least until a novelist meets a survivor of her story’s plot.
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Notes From the Balcony
The Noble Garden
Prisoners garden. Spies garden. Gardening is good for every soul. But a desire to garden doesn’t a gardner make. A story of slaughtering plants.
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Excerpts
The Report
An excerpt of Jessica Francis Kane’s forthcoming novel, The Report, about London’s Bethnal Green disaster, where 173 people died in WWII’s largest civilian accident.
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Notes From the Balcony
Brawl Between the Boxwoods
Marigolds wither, periwinkles rot, and a tree mysteriously dribbles cat urine. Our writer is in over her head, once more, with plants.
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The Non-Expert
Thy Neighbor’s Wisteria
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. When a reader asks about housewarming gifts, we see Armageddon in the neighborhood.
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Notes From the Balcony
Room for a View
New York’s empty balconies need filling. Our writer inaugurates a new series about urban-gardening warfare and southeastern-facing frustration.
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The Non-Expert
Mixed vs. Medley
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week, we do absolutely nothing to assist a reader while coining a new phrase.
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New York, New York
The Higher Line
When the new High Line Park opened last summer, New Yorkers lined up to be disappointed. A recent transplant finds it full of miracles.
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Notes From the Lawn
Timescape
We preserve old buildings, why not old landscapes? Transplanted horticulturalist JESSICA FRANCIS KANE discovers a mysterious garden outside time’s realm in Greenwich Village.