My wonderful former advisor from Goddard College, Susan Kim, wrote an article on the alumni blog about deadlines. Susan Kim is a New York City television writer, playwright, teacher, and more. She has a zillion fascinating and important irons in the fire at any given time. And she gave me considered, wonderful feedback on the… Continue reading On Deadlines: I am not Anne Bean, either
Category: Thoughts and Musings
Putting the “Dead” in “Deadlines”
This is a blog by writers and for writers. I get it. This is where members of the Goddard community reflect on topics germane to us, topics that are meant to inform and inspire: craft and voice. Activism and history. Process, revision, and the amazing book they just read. But I confess what’s haunting me… Continue reading Putting the “Dead” in “Deadlines”
Another World in Translation
Translation is impossible, poet and translator Alastair Reid told us in a small poetry workshop at Antioch College in 1970. He said you needed to know this, and then do it anyway. He describes the risk of failure in his poem, Speaking a Foreign Language: “Easy to understand,/through the tangle of language, the heart behind/groping… Continue reading Another World in Translation
Sustainable Scholarship
There is something rotten in Denmark: transforming life, scholarship, and writing toward a more sustainable paradigm —or —you’ve got the craft skills, now what are you going to do with it? By Karen Walasek Anyone alive who is paying attention knows that we are on a crash course toward climate destruction and that the burning… Continue reading Sustainable Scholarship
In medias res
“Would you like to see your mother one more time?” asked the huge blonde woman with a Norwegian last name, one of a set of triplets who had taken over the funeral home from their father in Scottsdale, Arizona. For one amazing moment, I thought this might actually be possible. I thought I might be… Continue reading In medias res
What Would Sappho Do?
Answer: Send Sneakers Sappho was a Greek poet born sometime around 612 BC. While not much is known for certain about her life, among poets her reputation is as large as the remaining fragments of her poetry are small. One thing I can state categorically about her is that she was born on the tiny… Continue reading What Would Sappho Do?
A Shameless Act of Self-Promotion
By Jon Ulrich This September will see the release of my first book, Winter in the Wilderness. It’s been a long time coming. Success in writing, I’ve found, takes three things: persistence, luck, and persistence. I feel like I’ve won the lottery. In a way, I have. Not many people know this about me, but… Continue reading A Shameless Act of Self-Promotion
To Literature
She’d been feeling sad all week and she said it was because of a conflict with her lover or place of employ or caused by reading too many vacuous comments in the newspaper and the proud ignorance and misanthropy of the readers got her down. Or its cause was the news video she watched of… Continue reading To Literature
In the Middle of Things
About two thousand years ago the Roman poet Horace was writing a long critical paper in verse that he titled the Ars Poetica. One of the questions he asked in the Ars Poetica was: What’s the best place to start a story? The obvious place, of course, is the beginning and this is what Horace… Continue reading In the Middle of Things
On Writing About Trauma
On writing about trauma: being split, being divided… “I am torn in two but I will conquer myself. I will dig up the pride. I will take scissors and cut out the beggar.” Anne Sexton Turning back to face trauma in our own history and writing about it can be an emotionally tiring task. I… Continue reading On Writing About Trauma
PEN USA Emerging Voices Scholarship
Next year Goddard College will offer a new MFA scholarship in partnership with PEN Center USA. The recipient of this $10,000 award will be selected from applicants who have previously been PEN USA Emerging Voices fellows. The scholarship is intended to encourage this remarkably talented, diverse, and deserving group of writers to take the “next… Continue reading PEN USA Emerging Voices Scholarship
On Collaboration
Collaboration: Two writers in the ‘Bad Art Room’ “We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.” – Elie Wiesel Introduction Collaboration among writers is important… Continue reading On Collaboration
New story. News story.
New story. News. Story. I have always followed the news. My earliest memories are of backseats, couches, cheap restaurants and taxi cabs in other countries where my mother or father would ask: can you turn it up please? The news. Can you turn it up? So they could hear better, so they could hear right.… Continue reading New story. News story.
White Tablecloths and Trinkets
By Julie Greene When I was approaching the age of thirteen, I was required to attend services at my synagogue every Friday night, not only to celebrate each Bat Mitzvah that came before mine, but to learn by example how to perform well when my turn came. After each Bat Mitzvah, in the back, our… Continue reading White Tablecloths and Trinkets
Coming Full Circle
I took a class in Japanese Theatre and found myself drawn to the Noh because it was so different from anything I had ever seen. Noh dramas are based on stories that are well known to the audience and they lack most of the dramatic conventions we expect in a play in the west, such as plot, action, or character development.
Secret Writing and the Blank Page
by Isla McKetta I was working on a project. I really was. After publishing my thesis and a book on writing last year, I finally had time to dedicate to new work. And I was going to get to it in earnest just as soon as the post-publication blues passed. Whenever that was. We’ve all been… Continue reading Secret Writing and the Blank Page
The Gifts of Retreat
It’s 94 degrees in Brooklyn, and I am writing in a pair of blue cashmere fingerless gloves. They are a gift from a dear friend – crafted from recycled goodness, and sent from Canada. They are also a shared talisman that connects me to my tribe: a group of women who inspire me, recognize me,… Continue reading The Gifts of Retreat
Play Submission Opportunities: An Interview with Graeme Gillis
by Rose Marie Sabangan, MFA Candidate Graeme Gillis, Artistic Director at New York’s Ensemble Studio Theater (EST), visited Goddard’s Plainfield campus on July 2, 2015. During a well-attended 3-hour exchange with MFA candidates in Dramatic Writing, Mr. Gillis presented and fielded student questions on play development opportunities available through EST. EST is located at 549… Continue reading Play Submission Opportunities: An Interview with Graeme Gillis
How to Write a Sentence
How to lie down forever in a sentence, so that the sky above you breaks off into black and gold pieces. The sky falls down to the ground where you lay: posed, supine, and rained upon. Lie down inside a sentence, then. It hurt me to write sentences at first. The activity of recursion, fundamental… Continue reading How to Write a Sentence
In Some Darker Place
By Liz Latty “Only when you are lost can love find itself in you without losing its way.” -Hélène Cixous When I was a small girl, my mother taught me how to make a bed. She taught me how to stretch the fitted sheet that often didn’t quite fit the mattress by beginning at one… Continue reading In Some Darker Place