With every word I write, I try to sidestep a landmine. Avoid disaster. Writing my first novel, I was hoping to find some blueprint on how to vividly dissect and then construct the complex and celebrated distinctions of black women….
Guest Post: Lying in Poetry, or Hey! Guess What I Dreamed Of by Babette Cieskowski
It started and ended with dolphins. As a child, when asked by my mother what I dreamed about the night before, I would lie and say I had the most spectacular, mythical adventure doing something relating to dolphins. At ten…
Guest Post: Storytelling: What a Beautiful Word by Mathieu Cailler
The only job I ever had in which no bellyaching existed was when I was nine, and I’d ride my bike around town, knocking on doors, asking neighbors if they needed any work done in their homes. (I watched a…
Guest Post: The Tiny Writing Lifestyle by Diane D. Gillette
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of tiny houses. Tiny is the current craze in the housing industry which means there are a plethora of tiny house TV shows to feed my obsession — which is anything but tiny!…
Guest Post: Inner Structures by Seth Jani
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 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: 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…