In a writing career that spans five decades, John Barth has established himself as the premier writer of the postmodern novel in America. Perhaps more than any other contemporary writer, Barth has managed to combine consistently cutting-edge formal exper...

John Barth has taken what he considers the moribund genre of the traditional novel and has revived it with a series of imaginative and inventive "fictions." Barth writes, "If I were a painter, I would attempt to be as contemporary as Frank Stella, and st...

The whole thing seemed like a Stephen King novel: decomposing bodies lying in open caskets in an overgrown private cemetery, terrified children in an adjacent mobile home park, and the city saying nothing could be done. But in Chesapeake, Va., this week a...

The tidewater, that fragile space between water and land that reflects the delicate balance between nature and man, is at its best in winter. At sunrise and sunset, the sky and water are flooded with iridescent pinks and mauves. Geese, doves, ducks, osprey and...