About the Work: Danica Li In our “About the Work” series, Olga Mexina asks recent contributors for insight into their writing or for current sources of inspiration. Read Danica Li 's work in SER Vol. 43.1. “Queen of Hearts, Queen of Swords” This story was based on my experience from many years ago working as a young lawyer representing a group of female dancers in a wage theft class action against a strip club. Among the dozens of cases I’ve handled before and since over my law career,...

About the Work: Benjamin Grossberg In our “About the Work” series, Olga Mexina asks recent contributors for insight into their writing or for current sources of inspiration. Read Benjamin Grossberg 's work in SER Vol. 43.1. “My Octopus Lover Makes No Bones” My initial inspiration for this series was the 2020 documentary, My Octopus Teacher: its vivid, saturated glimpses. But when I started writing a year or so after watching it, the real quickly got left behind. My octopus has more in...

Excavation (1950), Willem de Kooning That Winter I Grew Fat on love: he fried me eggs in butter—never enough butter he’d say as he baked me one more loaf of sourdough, planted raspberries on my tongue with his mouth, held out ladles brimming with apple tea brewed in cinnamon, honey to sink my lips into. More than love I’d say it was a diet of being loved. The machine of his body craned me from the sofa to the dinette. His Honda migrated me across rivers, out of the lonely walls of my home...