Before this semester started, a new school with new classes for me, I sought advice from a colleague who’s taught at the college for many years. She told me she starts the semester with existential questions for her students. Eighteen-year-olds, primarily young women at our school, spend the first class (in this case, research-based writing)…
Despite J. being away covering a story for the bulk of January, despite being under the weather, despite having a baby underfoot/overlap, despite that baby awakening at various dead-of-night hours with teething pain or some such discomfort, despite preparations for my first semester back in the classroom (this time with an age group new to…
On this final deadly Monday, my co-author Cheryl Wilder presents her examination of Pride in the writing life, and it's an eye-opener. How stealthy Pride can be, growing powerful and inciting other sins before we realize it. How deadly. I learned a great deal as we imagined, created, and revised this essay series. I learned…
Deadly Monday dawned foggy, but warmed and cleared by the afternoon when I took S. out for a walk. He fell asleep right away, which was unusual since his torticollis makes him nauseous and uncomfortable when strolling. Then I found an open bench in the hood, despite the park being closed since Hurricane Sandy ripped…
Greed is the antithesis of who I am, or at least of how I see myself. So it was mighty uncomfortable to go looking for it in every corner of the writing life and find it in me. I'm more grateful than ever to my co-author Cheryl Wilder and the writing friends we surveyed. I'm especially…
