At twenty-eight I have quietly, and without much explaining, maneuvered my life into a position where I can easily focus on writing. This means I currently work a slightly-better than minimum-wage service industry job with limited hours and as few…
Guest Post: Creating a Handmade Life by Shavawn M. Berry
When I finished my Master’s degree eighteen years ago, I had this Virginia Woolf-ish daydream of living in a cottage overlooking the sea – windows open to the salty air – companionship and solitude in perfect measure. I dreamed of…
Guest Post: A Life in Poetry Ain’t for Sissies by Peter Serchuk
Now into my sixth decade of life and my fourth decade as a serious writer of poems, I can say without hesitation that my life in poetry remains the most exhilarating, depressing, titillating, frustrating, constructive, destructive, enlightening, and numbing experience…
Guest Post: Revision: Knowing When to Swing the Darlings-Axe by Allie Gove
One of the first things that really struck me to hear from a writing teacher was this: “there is no good writing, only good re-writing.” As a first semester student in my first Intro to Creative Writing class (because yes,…
Guest Post: Writing Outreach: Why It Matters by Jen Knox
The value of creative writing is something that I think about on a daily basis. If my time and energy were depicted in a pie chart, writing would represent the fattest slice. When I’m not writing, teaching writing, or coaching…
Guest Post: A Virtual Collaboration between Diverse Artists by Sandra Kolankiewicz
In 2009 I began a novel, When I Fell,with the purpose of shedding baggage I’d been collecting: adapting to my son’s severe autism; resigning my academic job in order to try to give him the best start; accepting my own…
Guest Post: A Legal Job by Brad Garber
I have a legal job. There are lots of jobs that have connections to the “legal” world. One could be a legal secretary (the ones who do all of the work), or a paralegal (an animal that is a cross…
Guest Post: Writing at the Brink by Elizabeth Jane Whittington
New Hampshire is bipolar this spring. The weather swings from darkly grim to bright. An early melt floods the frosty earth with enough warmth in March to coax tulips and daffodils up through the soil, then sudden cold drops the…
Guest Post: The Importance of Hickory-Nut Hunting by W. Royce Adams
Although I’m looking back decades into the ‘50s, I still remember my first college freshman English class assignment. I had been placed in what was then called “dumbbell English,” or Subject A, a course designed for those who didn’t qualify…
Guest Post: The Domestication of the Poet by Lauren Sartor
The current trend of writing poetry has made it so that more and more poets can sustain a living in the periphery of creative writing. The advent of MFA programs, the uptick of blogs and magazines and the general increased…
Guest Post: Becoming a Real Writer: the Creative Writing Major by Colleen Fullin
I recently received an email from a young woman asking for advice. She is a junior at the fine arts high school I attended more than ten years ago. She contacted me at the email address affiliated with my school,…
Guest Post: Sea Change or How do you swim wearing weights? by Trina Gaynon
My definition of self is tied to my writing life. As an anchor it’s heavy enough, but its efficiency tends to depend on whether or not new poems are being turned out on a regular basis, without a great deal…