In 1811, architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe spurred American builders into action when he called for them to reject "the corrupt Age of Dioclesian, or the still more absurd and debased taste of Louis the XIV," and to emulate instead the ancient temples of Greece.In response, people in the antebellum trans-Appalachian region embraced the clean lines, intricate details, and stately symmetry of the Grecian style. On newly built public buildings, private homes, and religious structures, ...

Drag kings and sea monsters, switchblade travellers and teacup ghosts—these stories and poems are a mixture of the mundane and the bizarre. Here you’ll find true tales of a son’s death and a girl’s first heartbreak, stories that range from the minutely personal to the transcendently universal.Words are only words until the writer, like an alchemist, blends them with sweat and self-reckoning to create something out of the ordinary. A community of 62 writers combine their words in em...