Back in September, I was inspired by an article on Lit Hub by Kim Liao about setting a goal of 100 rejections per year. The idea being that making the rejections the goal would take some of the sting out of getting them and hopefully remove the mental block most […]
Back in September, I was inspired by an article on Lit Hub by Kim Liao about setting a goal of 100 rejections per year. The idea being that making the rejections the goal would take some of the sting out of getting them and hopefully remove the mental block most […]
At a time when rhyming poets and free verse poets are like armed camps, perhaps it is time for us to find a middle ground, a time for truces and treaties, mutual respect and support for colleagues who have common interests and face common challenges, because in […]
At a time when rhyming poets and free verse poets are like armed camps, perhaps it is time for us to find a middle ground, a time for truces and treaties, mutual respect and support for colleagues who have common interests and face common challenges, because in […]
When it comes to poetry, here are some common things people say: -- It's old (or dead). -- It's nerdy. -- It's elitist, snobbish, stuck-up, or exclusive. -- It's boring. -- It's hard. -- We had to learn it in school, but it never really interested me. For […]
My first morning at Bread Loaf, our workshop leader asked if everyone was familiar with the Iowa workshop model. I raised my hand. "I've never taken any kind writing class or workshop in my life, so you can safely assume you need to explain everything to me." She […]
1– I am at a party, sitting in the middle of someone's bedroom floor, holding a plastic cup and crying, because being a writer is a lovely, terrible thing, and I cannot articulate, to myself or anyone else, why I want so badly for my stories to be […]
Oft when on my vacant couch I lie (to borrow from Wordsworth) I visualize three diverse voices chart thoughts about my favorite art form. In his verse dedicated to the exemplary W.B. Yeats, a mercurial, nuanced position was taken by W.H. Auden, "Poetry makes nothing happen". I hear […]
I write in both genres, and have often wondered what impels me toward each type of expression. Time lapse is one element that seems to convince me that a subject should find its place in a poem: if a specific, momentary observation moves me, that seems less appropriate […]
Lately, I've been immersed in two dazzling books: My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout and When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams. Both books deal with ideas of motherhood in ways that are touching, sometimes sentimental, but always deeply honest. So often we read mother-daughter […]
