Mitch Albom is getting a drubbing for concocting a piece about a game he hadn’t (yet) attended and filing the story without waiting to see if it would turn true. He got caught when he guessed wrong who would be at the game. He swears it’s the only time it’s happened. Gee, I hope so. […]
Half of writing school is reading other students’ submissions and submitting intelligent feedback on their work–a great way to learn from others and to polish analytical thinking and the ability to closely read texts. During the semester, I am assigned between one and three pieces every week, and I try to write at least one […]
I confess to being a paid subscriber to Salon.com. If it makes any difference, that’s how I got a free subscription to the New Yorker and six months’ of The Week (which is like a blog only printed on paper). Ayelet Waldman recently began a Salon column that runs every other Monday. I didn’t know […]
Some of you have asked about my MFA book project. I’ll probably modify this post when I’m more mellow, but it has been a heckuva day not even including work, which was bone-breaking (car to shop; car dashboard finally fixed; ride to shop MIA; panic: class time; drove Sandy’s car in horrific rush-hour traffic; Sandy’s […]
Updated 8/13/05; added current page lengths. ————— Here is the current (and ever-evolving) outline of the collection of essays I’m writing for the MFA program. The book-length collection, my final project, is due August 2006. I have enough essays planned to fill the minimum word count requirement, but I’m still combing my brain to see […]
In the great children’s classic “Caddie Woodlawn,” I recall–if I have it right–a painfully funny moment where she stands in front of her class and misquotes an aphorism: “If at first you don’t fricasee, fry, fry a hen.” I had the same experience Tuesday night, when I took a beloved writing idea I really wanted […]
I lay in bed in the dark this morning, awake far too early, not willing to admit I was not going to get back to sleep, hearing the same sentences tapped out over and over like a military tattoo: How I could write anything so awful, so stupid, so murky? What was I thinking? Last […]
I spent most of this day tethered to a keyboard while humping over a long essay due this Wednesday, yearning to read the essays in today’s Times recommended in an essay on Beatrice, which is, since you asked, the best literary reading around. I did take a moment during my morning cuppa to read Frank […]
This is for a classmate, Lori, who has written about her hatred of Smooth Jazz. Lori, get in and drive! Bookmark to:
There were really nine students in this class section from my writing class at USF (David is the One That Got Away). From left to right: Chris, Deborah (instructor), Lars, Lisa, Elisabeth, Alexis, Liza, me, Marie. What a great class, such wonderful people. So glad it’s over, though–I have six weeks of People Magazine to […]