The first night our premature newborn slept in our bedroom, I wondered, how can I keep this tiny thing alive? Eight hours later, my husband and I were back at the pediatrician’s office and then the E.R. to re-admit our baby boy. Heart murmur, low blood sugar, jaundice. Without the hospital, I couldn’t keep this tiny thing alive. …
I had this piece about my mom. What I call a small wonder, because I don't see it as long and developed enough to be an essay, to do the particular work of an essay. Some call it micro, flash, short. Pieces like this seem bigger than they are. So I had one like that.…
Seven years ago, I wrote here about a colleague who starts each semester prompting her students to consider: Who am I? What am I doing here exactly? What more is there to learn about me? How can I possibly be happy or seek fulfillment when pain, suffering, and death are inevitable? I wrote here about…
What role do we as parents play in determining which experiences our children will remember, and how they will remember them? Do we secretly (or not so secretly) have our hearts set on our kids remembering particular things about themselves, about their childhood, about us? How do we navigate the excess of methods that promise…
I am excited to join fellow VCFA graduates Benjamin Woodard and Sophfronia Scott at the East Hartford Public Library next Thursday. We will read from our work and share the reasons why, with all the urgent environmental, political, financial, social, health, and humanitarian issues facing our world, we keep reading stories and writing our own.…
