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KARISA TELL | AUTHOR

Writing

I've published fiction, culture criticism, personal essays, in-depth reported pieces, profiles, editorials and more at The Masters Review, CNET, Milwaukee Magazine, Louisville Magazine and elsewhere. Here's a sampling of my work.

Image by Aldebaran S

"There were no applicant requirements: people of all ages, income levels, and nationalities, the website said, could become a Martian."

Escape Velocity

The Masters Review

"Perhaps a lifetime of frustration without an obvious cause ("car blindness," the phenomenon is called) was my camel, and the anti-car movement was merely the straw that broke its back."

How I Learned to Hate Cars, and What I'm Doing About It

CNET

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"To curdle means to spoil or sour, to turn something good into something bad. But curdling is also the process of coagulating milk into cheese. A happy accident. The Cheesehead hat is another happy accident, or "dumb luck," as Bruno describes it, an example of the very Wisconsin notion of flipping "spoiled" into a point of cultural (pun intended) pride."

How Wisconsin's Cheesehead hat turned an insult into an icon

CNET

Children of Men didn't predict the future: A 15th-anniversary rewatch

"I found it comforting, early in the pandemic, to read about the many plagues of antiquity, because history provides proof the human race will go on. And I found it comforting during the other real-life antecedents to Theo's dystopian future, to know mine wasn't the first generation to fear that maybe this was actually the beginning of the end."

CNET

"The intersection of Chicago St. and Milwaukee St. is a peaceful one. There’s a parking garage, a few office buildings, a café. As Milwaukee struggles to define our identity beyond beer, brats and the Bronze Fonz, we will reasonably take issue with purely relational sobriquets: We’re not Chicago’s little brother, younger cousin or drunk uncle."

Why Chicago Shouldn’t Be Worried About Milwaukee’s Ascendance

Milwaukee Magazine

"Within a month of moving to the suburbs, I was invited to my first Tupperware party. It wasn’t so much a party as an unending parade of multi-functional plastic kitchen accoutrements. It ended with a Russian roulette-style game wherein the next host was chosen against her will. It was the most suburban thing I had ever participated in."

Living in the Suburbs Isn’t So Bad, Right?

Milwaukee Magazine

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"Whether I’m surrounded by the unobscured trappings of late capitalism or a premonition of its eventual demise, the ambiance is at first one of melancholy. Hollister’s aggressive music is silent, giving way to the sad hum of vending machines. The racks at Forever 21 give the disorienting appearance of infinity."

Mall Walking In the Post-Retail Age

Louisville Magazine

"A self-designated 'Kentucky boy' who grew up in Georgetown and came of age on the Bourbon Trail, Hawkins radiates Southern charm with an unwavering grin, a Kentucky-hug drawl and the kind of earnest introspection that self-indicts but never effaces."

Mocktober Is Upon Us

Louisville Magazine

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