Troy Urquhart Commentary

In 2007, I took part in a panel investigating the issue of tolerance. I was writing about the prisoners held by the United States at Guántanamo Bay, Cuba, and after the panel had ended, I found myself reading Jacques Derrida's Of Hospitality.

About the threshold, Derrida writes: "Desire measures time since its abolition in the stranger's entering movement: the stranger, here the awaited guest, is not only someone to whom you say 'come,' but 'enter,' enter without waiting, make a pause in our home without waiting, hurry up and come in, 'come inside,' 'come within me,' not only toward me, but within me: occupy me, take place in me, which means, by the same token, also take my place, don't content yourself with coming to me or 'into my home.' Crossing the threshold is entering and not only approaching or coming."

Beside the desk in my study, there is a door, framed in wood but mostly glass. Some nights, I leave it open.


Troy Urquhart lives in central Florida and works at Montverde Academy, an independent boarding school where he teaches writing and American literature, mostly to students who aren't American. His work is forthcoming or has recently appeared in places like Tulip, Hobble Creek Review, The Corduroy Mtn., and Willows Wept Review. His chapbook Springtime Sea Bathing is scheduled to appear later this year from Carl Annarummo's small press, The Greying Ghost. He sometimes keeps a blog at http://notesfromthewonderground.blogspot.com/.