Robinson’s Way
Finding hidden shapes
The lights are regulated correctly, there is a perfect distance between my bass and the amp, between my mouth and the mike. I glance toward my friend holding his vibrant red electric guitar. He starts [...]
On Armistice Day
On a day when everyone searches for peace, columnist Will Robinson muses on the history of a protest song.
Tannenbaum for the migrant
Living in a time and place in which religious faith is unfashionable, France-based columnist Will Robinson decides to believe anyway.
A miraculous catch
In the Brittany seaside town I visited in July, situated in the northernmost region of Finistère (literally, land’s end), there comes to pass a somewhat enchanted event my host calls the pêche miraculeuse (or miraculous [...]
Les chiens
I was studying for a three-hour French exam, scheduled the next day, while getting ready for bed when I heard a neighbor pass by our rural Normandy house. I wasn't the only one to hear [...]
Melodies for homesickness
Although I’ve probably been to the United States close to twenty times, if not more, and though I'm a U.S. citizen, I can’t profess to ever having lived there for more than six months at [...]
James and Peggy in the Latin Quarter
This is excellent, wrote my bass teacher, sending me a link to an article about American writer James Baldwin’s relationship with France. He knows that Baldwin is among my heroes. I’ve been guided by his [...]
Celebrating oneself
If you’re as incurably literary a person as I am, any library in proximity is a beautiful haven. There are many such havens in my area, but the New York Public Library is one that [...]
Some lyrics to hope by
This column, truthfully, is a love letter to writing. It comes after after a bout with creative infertility that lasted at least a month. As in most love letters, this one is confused, more garbled [...]
My place to be
The first time I heard the late English singer-songwriter Nick Drake, I thought he was Welsh because of the inflexions that peppered his melodic singing voice. This, as I later found out, came from his [...]
James Baldwin saved my life
Some things leave a mark. This school year did. Its awkward summer break came after a (pointless) return to school that followed a four-month confinement. My life during this period was a carefully-stitched amalgam of [...]
A gift at le marché
For as long as I can remember, the Thursday morning farmer's market has been a weekly institution, a hive that brings vitality to an otherwise gray day (and there are many) in the town of [...]
Author
Will Keppler Robinson
Will Keppler Robinson was born in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 2005 and has lived in Normandy, France for the past 11 years. He has written two poetry collections, a novel and two plays. A passionate lover of music, he also translates, writes songs, and cultivates vivid interests in history and art-house films.