We had two reference books at home when my siblings and I were in elementary school. One was a massive dictionary, the other was a massive encyclopedia. These two volumes must have each cost my parents a small fortune, but they were invaluable. Together, the tomes probably weighed more than any one of us kids. …
Category: Articles
The Writing Life: In Progress by William Henderson
Blame what you will: Changing seasons, the start of the school year for my son, an influx of income-generating writing projects, but several projects I impulsively began over the summer remain in the In-Progress folder on my computer desktop.
Review: I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl by Kelle Groom
Memories aren’t linear. Shame doesn’t subside with each confession. That is the world inside Kelle Groom’s memoir, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl.
Review: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
“That perhaps being amidst the undesecrated beauty of the wilderness meant I too could be undesecrated, regardless of what I’d lost or what had been taken from me, regardless of the regrettable things I’d done to others or myself or the regrettable things that had been done to me. Of all the things I’d been…
Interview: Alan Watt, author of The 90-Day Novel
I encourage students in my writing workshops to “write through” with the purpose of getting the story out of their heads and onto the page…. As the author of The 90-Day Novel, Watt has taken that writerly advice and created a successful step-by-step approach to story.
Craft: By the Book by Risa Nye
I own nineteen books about—or related to—writing, not counting the big fat Houghton Mifflin Dictionary that I rarely use since I now have the dictionary app on my iPhone.
The Writer’s Life: The Second Person by Michael Suppa
You’re seated at a large table with a delegation of professors and several classmates. The smell of old books, of the once finely polished furniture, and the faded tapestry rug tinges your nose. You wonder why they would choose such a poorly lit room to have you read in…
The Writer’s Life: Beyond Words — Other Art Forms by Hilary Meyerson
We love the zing of a snappy line, the mournful tones of a somber one, the cadence of a staccato beat of dialogue. Once you’re hooked on language, it’s a drug.
Review: Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
Set amid the dark, dingy streets of Boston where the homeless sleep on park benches or regroup in shelters to survive another day, Nick Flynn has one last opportunity to engage his father, a homeless, self-proclaimed novel writer.
Interview: Lacy M. Johnson, author of Trespasses: A Memoir
Whether you grew up in New Jersey as I did, or the rural Great Plains as did author Lacy M. Johnson, one’s childhood surroundings can’t help but seep into your pores and influence the way you view the world – even if you move many miles away.
