J. R. Patterson

J. R. Patterson was born on a cattle and grain farm in rural Manitoba, Canada. He has worked as a farm laborer, factory worker, and writer. He has written for a variety of international publications, including National Geographic, Literary Review of Canada, and the LARB.

Dakar

January 2022
J. R. Patterson

“African Renaissance Monument” by pennstatenews is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 LIKE A PILLOW that has burst its seams, Dakar overflows with an excess of life. The resultant...
Jim Harrison’s Meatballs

July 20, 2021 | J. R. Patterson

Photo by slgckgc / Flickr Returning home to Manitoba, J. R. Patterson finds writer Jim Harrison’s meatballs are the comfort food he needs. There’s nothing quite like diving into a go...
Timbooktoo: The Pipeline Bookshop

Summer 2021
J. R. Patterson

BOOKSTORES ARE OFTEN pegged as refuges, sanctuaries, havens, and the like, but they behave more accurately like consulates. With their filing systems, scuttling attendants, and all t...
Speaking in Tongues

Spring 2021
J. R. Patterson

Photo by David Norman / Unsplash A writer with Scottish ancestry traces the life of Scottish Gaelic and assesses the current state of this “intangible heritage” now placed at the center of...
Glasgow, City of Storytellers

Spring 2021
J. R. Patterson

Photo by Artur Kraft / Unsplash GLASGOW IS NOT SO MUCH OF A CITY of books as a city of stories and storytellers. In the years I lived there, the stories I heard reflected the...
Mahall al-Maa: Amman, Jordan

Winter 2021
J. R. Patterson

Photo by Hussein Alazaat IN THE BONE-CRACKING ARIDITY of Jordan, civilizations are still born from, and borne upon, water. On the poppling wellsprings found on the hills and w...