What is writing for?
I confess that, after having taught creative writing for more than 35 years and read tons of student writing I don’t remember and tons of good and great books by good and great authors I also don’t remember, I sometimes find myself wondering if we really need any more new writing.
Tag: travel
Amtrak Writer’s Residency: Rail Tale
I’m writing to you today from the Amtrak quiet car, on a southbound train somewhere in New Jersey. Although the Amtrak Writer’s Residency Program is “currently evaluating the future of the program and do not have a timeline for when the next submission process will launch,” you can still pay out of pocket for a DIY Amtrak residency. That’s what I’ve been doing in 2017, now that my full-time teaching job is in Virginia and my fiancé is a theater director in New York.
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.
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
The Writer’s Road Trip
By Ron Heacock Descended at least culturally if not genetically from the ranks of our most exulted literary road warriors – writers like John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, and Ken Kesey – my wife Karen Walasek and I have exercised and exorcised our wanderlust cyclically throughout our forty year marriage. There have been many, many journeys… Continue reading The Writer’s Road Trip
The Original World Wide Web
By Lucas M. Peters My polyglot wife is fond of telling me that as you are learning a new language, you are learning a new culture. Language, she says, is an extension of the culture of a place and its people. It is an unwieldy thing that has many strange branches and rules. It simultaneously… Continue reading The Original World Wide Web
Victoria Nelson in London
Victoria Nelson is in London this month!… Read her London Postcard: I am in London this month, staying in a spacious flat with dodgy plumbing in the Marylebone district of central London (this is the old station, not the flat): The weather has been gorgeous, tulips and daffodils are blooming in all the parks. This… Continue reading Victoria Nelson in London
Trusting the Process in Tucson
by Kristen Stone One of the most amazing things about my Goddard experience (beside the invective to TRUST THE PROCESS, something I still wrestle with, on the daily, in my writing and non-writing lives) is the connections I made with writers—who became friends—around the country. One such friend is Kristen Nelson, founder and Executive Director… Continue reading Trusting the Process in Tucson
Alumni News: Michelle Embree Interviews Sarah Shellow
Michelle writes: “The week has gifted me with numerous pleasures. The best being an opportunity to ask a few questions of a fellow writer and Goddard graduate, Sarah Shellow. Her words always give me a sense of healing and I very much would like to share them with all of you. Thank you and enjoy.”… Continue reading Alumni News: Michelle Embree Interviews Sarah Shellow
New Zealand Pleasures
by Nicola Morris I love small collections of books… a hotel shelf of books, a “free library” on the side of the street that has popped up with a tiny collection, some books left at the laundromat. Here in New Zealand I went off to the library to find some New Zealand fiction. I found… Continue reading New Zealand Pleasures
Undocumented: Sarah Shellow at Spoke The Hub
In 2003, I broke the law because I did not believe in one that kept people from knowing each other. I went to live in Cuba for three months, packing my bags with my dream to write, with my years of studying Spanish, with the years I danced Cuban salsa in New York, and with… Continue reading Undocumented: Sarah Shellow at Spoke The Hub