Personal. Political. Provocative. Ad-free.

Selections from the April issue

The Good Red Road:
Leslie Gray On Rediscovering America’s Oldest Psychology
“Shamanism has been around for more than forty thousand years and continues to be used by more than 300 million indigenous people in the world today. It’s not just part of the ancient past.”
Interview by Barbara Platek

 

The Fine Art Of Quitting
“Greatness is in me like peanuts in a PayDay bar. Earnestly and glowingly inebriated at two o’clock in the morning, I tell anyone who will listen that I am going to win the Nobel Prize in literature one day. All I need is something to write about.” 
Essay by Poe Ballantine

Faith
In one’s mother, after a brutal attack, before the planes hit the towers
Personal stories by our readers

Plus: Poetry by Ellen Bass and Sunbeams

Favorite from the archives

From the April 1991 issue:

The Myth Of Therapy:
An Interview With James Hillman
“What one feels is very important, but how do we connect therapy’s concerns about feeling with the disorder of the world, especially the political world? As this preoccupation with feeling has grown, our sense of political engagement has dropped off.”
Interview by Sy Safransky

This interview appears in the anthology Stubborn Light: The Best of The Sun, Volume III.

Help us expand our online archive by recommending your favorite piece from The Sun. We may include your suggestion on our website and in our newsletter.

Help sustain The Sun

According to the experts, an ad-free, reader-supported magazine is unlikely to survive. We’ve proven the conventional wisdom wrong, but these are brutal days in the publishing world: respected newspapers are teetering on the edge; major book publishers are laying off top editors; and independent magazines are folding right and left.

The Sun is sustained by readers, not corporate dollars. Your tax-deductible donation will keep the magazine independent and free of advertising during this difficult time. Perhaps you can view a contribution to The Sun this year as a wise investment — not in some feckless mutual fund, but in a magazine that pays dividends when it arrives in your mailbox every month.

Help sustain The Sun

Celebrate with us on May 1

Join us for a reception and reading in Carrboro, North Carolina, to celebrate the publication of our new book, The Mysterious Life of the Heart: Writing from The Sun about Passion, Longing, and Love.

The party will be held on Friday, May 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Carrboro ArtsCenter’s West End Stage. We’ll provide complimentary refreshments, and signed copies of the book will be available for sale. For details and directions click here.

What bloggers are saying

An educator in Michigan and a sex columnist in Montreal discuss Arnie Cooper’s interview with Nicholas Carr [“Computing the Cost,” March 2009].

Readers of Nicholas Carr's blog Rough Type praise and argue about his interview in the comments section.

A yoga teacher in Chicago reflects on Wendell Berry’s essay “Why I Am Not Going To Buy A Computer” [March 2009].

A librarian in southern California reviews our new book, The Mysterious Life of the Heart: Writing from The Sun about Passion, Longing, and Love.

About.com recommends a subscription to The Sun as a “global gift” for grandmothers.

Are Sun readers meeting in your area?

More than 150 groups of Sun readers meet regularly to discuss the latest issue of the magazine, or write, or both. Groups have recently formed in:

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Miami Beach, Florida
Lawrence, Kansas
New York, New York

To view the complete list of Sun groups, or to start your own, click here.

Weekends with Sun authors

Into The Fire
The Sun Celebrates Personal Writing

Join Sun authors, readers, and staff — including editor and publisher Sy Safransky — for a lively weekend of conversation, reflection, and inspiration. The Sun will host two gatherings this year: one on May 15–17 at the Rowe Conference Center in Rowe, Massachusetts, and the other on October 30–November 1 at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.

Online registration is now available; click here for details. Spaces fill quickly, so we recommend registering soon.

Most-read on our website

1. Computing The Cost:
   Nicholas Carr On How The Internet Is Rewiring Our Brains
   Interview by Arnie Cooper
   (March 2009)
2. The Dinner Table
   Readers Write
   (March 2009)
3. All Of Me
   Essay by Patricia Brieschke
   (March 2009)
4. Under The Apple Tree
   Fiction by Laura Pritchett
   (August 2006)
5. In The Jester’s Court:
   Paul Krassner On The Virtues Of Irreverence, Indecency, And Illegal Drugs
   Interview by David Kupfer
   (February 2009)

Free trial offer

Not yet a subscriber? We offer a free trial issue of The Sun with no obligation. Try us before you buy — and save 50% off the newsstand price if you decide to continue your subscription.

Click here to take advantage of this special offer.

You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Sun’s e-newsletter at www.thesunmagazine.org. We don’t share your e-mail address with anyone. Please see our website to read our full privacy policy.

• Send this newsletter to a friend
• Send us feedback on our e-newsletter or website
• Unsubscribe from this newsletter

Copyright ©2009, The Sun Publishing Company, Inc., 107 North Roberson Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516.