Category: Thoughts and Musings

Writing the Other Side of the Story:  Researching the Pacific War in Japan

I have an irrational fear of falling into a Japanese toilet—not an everyday worry, but one that poses itself as I pack for a weeklong research trip to a small town in Japan. I had knee surgery a few years ago and my squat technique is not what it used to be. My friend Reiko tells me it’s highly unlikely. I don’t tell her that I am the Queen of Unlikely. I tell her she’s right, and prepare for the worst.

Tips for the Resistance Fatigued

If you are like me, you’ve probably spent hours over the last few months writing letters and making phone calls to your Senators and Congressman to voice your opposition to the political firestorm taking place in Washington DC. If you are like me, you are also probably experiencing some Resistance Fatigue, and frustration, due to busy signals, message machines that are full, staffers who are tired of hearing your voice, or hand cramps from writing so many letters.

Writing and Running

MFAW faculty Keenan Norris: …my father, was less a reader than a storage chest of historical anecdote and information, come upon by means academic and experiential. He was also a runner, my father, a collegiate national record holder for twenty four hours at one point in time, so while my writings are much less the result of natural talent than dedicated labor, the running is in my blood.

Quiet in There

A friend was becoming famous. He was, like most of my friends, a writer, and his writing was appearing in more and more prestigious places and gaining more and more attention. He deserved success. I can say that now. But I couldn’t say it then. What I could say instead—what I did say, to myself,… Continue reading Quiet in There

As I write these words I am hurtling through a tunnel

Goddard MFAW alumna Theresa Barker: As I write these words I am hurtling (hurtling!) through a tunnel below ground under the hills of Seattle, in a plastic and metal carriage in a chamber that a thousand thousand thousand inventions of humans have created. Such a thing is unthinkable if you really pay attention to it, as unthinkable as time travel, yet here I am.

Lost in a Dark Forest, I Come upon a Wall

Goddard MFAW director Elena Georgiou: I am “midway upon the journey of [my] life”, in a dark forest; in a world where rising levels of disrespect and unkindness are called “pendulum swings”. I’m so profoundly, overpoweringly, overwhelmingly, dreadfully, devastatingly disappointed. And I am also lost.
A wall cannot solve.
A wall does not equate.
A wall is bad math.

Risks and Revelations

Goddard MFAW faculty Victoria Nelson: The whole thing about risks is that you don’t know whether the risk is a good one or a bad one until after you take the plunge. That’s why it’s a risk.

On Trump Protests: You Never Know What You’ll Get to Be Grateful For

Goddard MFAW faculty Aimee Liu: “You never know what you’ll get to be grateful for.” That’s what Carolyn would have said, had she lived to see the waves of protests marching across America since Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Prophetic Writing

Goddard MFAW faculty John McManus: The attorney general, having sought and won the presidency, set out to dismantle the government. He dissolved the White House Press Corps. He prank-called other world leaders, hanging up on them or threatening war. He trusted no one but his beloved daughter. He commanded the Joint Chiefs of Staff to declare DEFCON 1, just for the sake of the adrenaline rush it gave him.

Hope is a Form of Energy

Goddard MFAW faculty Michael Klein: The beautiful writer, John Berger, who died a day into the New Year once said to the living: “hope is not a form of guarantee; it’s a form of energy, and very frequently that energy is strongest in circumstances that are very dark.” For all of you, I wish radical hope.

Book Club for the New Administration

Which three books would you give our new president in order to shape our future? In the 1960 movie adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, the hero– H.George Wells– returns home from a far-flung future to retrieve three books with which to rebuild humanity.  The movie ends with the question, “Which three would you… Continue reading Book Club for the New Administration

Dear Young Disabled Writer and Disabled Writers Not Yet Born,

Goddard MFAW faculty Kenny Fries: Dear Young Disabled Writer and Disabled Writers Not Yet Born,

You might ask: What does this have to do with the disturbing results of the recent U.S. election? Why is this story important for me to impart to you at this time?

When I was born in 1960 nobody knew whether I would live or die. When, after four weeks in an incubator, my parents were able to take me home, nobody knew whether I’d be able to walk.

Now, here I am fifty-six years later, alive and, most of the time, still walking.

Kirsten Childs: Underneath It All

Goddard MFAW faculty Deborah Brevoort gave her Fall 2016 advising group the extraordinary opportunity to connect with the prolific writer, Kirsten Childs. Her credentials span various works, but we had the pleasure of examining her musical, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. This is a funny and poignant story about a little black girl named Viveca Stanton and her journey of self-discovery.