The knife, angled just so, can cut to the bone. Mocking me on the ALA Council list, a councilor wrote, “Don’t you know that she is *practicing* to be a Real Writer?” That’s how most of us feel, most of the time, while writing. Nobody needs to say that out loud; it’s the backbeat to […]
This is a space I created over break for reading, studying, and revision (which for me is done largely by hand, with a Red Pen Of Death–a fine-point PaperMate Flair with its distinctive maraschino-cherry-colored ink). I call this spot my Table of Craft (“craft” being a word I love to toy with, resonant as it […]
Scrawled beneath the boilerplate: “A beautiful manuscript whose discursive ambitiousness isn’t suitable for our editorial needs. Keep up the great work.” Bookmark to:
It happens nearly every week: a day or two after an MFA student hands out a piece for other students to critique, the all-class email arrives with an apology and at least one correction–sometimes to errors of fact, sometimes for typos. I’ve done it myself once or twice, but I finally decided that the errors […]
Thought those of you following this blog might get your own little taste of schadenfreude by considering my student workload this spring, which comes on top of my full-time job where I am manager, supervisor, editor in chief, accountant, trainer, chief bottle-washer, marketing maven, and ‘umble grant-writer. You will never hear me say I didn’t […]
Here’s the current state of my major project for my MFA, as it has slowly (or sometimes quickly) evolved over the past year. I am in my last “real” semester, and this summer I’ll work one-on-one with an advisor. No bets that the project will stay as it is, but thought some of you might […]
“Why had he forgotten to bring note cards to dinner that night? Had he not warned me when I forgot my own notebook that the ability to make a note when something came to mind was the difference between being able to write and not being able to write?” — Joan Didion, “The Year of […]
“Finding/creating a writing community is really important; you have to find some way to connect your life to the writing life.” – A wise instructor Like most MFA students, I live in fear that post-MFA, I will never write again, at least not creatively. Some of this has to do with how artificially structured our […]
My latest post to ALA TechSource is up; I wrote it in a dead heat using several of those googly-eye-making paragraphs I am far too fond of, and our editor did such a nice job cleaning it up. And the post has pretty pictures, too! I will be blogging for LITA at Midwinter, so I […]
I always read “Modern Love,” short essays about relationships in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times, usually right after I scan the “Weddings/Celebrations” section for announcements of marriages and confirmation ceremonies for same-sex couples. “Modern Love” essays are uneven: sometimes poignant or drop-dead funny, but other times overbearingly snarky or just predictable […]