Clik here to view.
Majestic Endings
As I closed in on the first draft of a novel, I wrote toward an ending I’d held in my mind for months. It was a quiet climax in keeping with the, ahem, literary nature of my novel. I knew that when I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Autobiography of the Imagination: Toward a Definition
The autobiography of the imagination writes itself, one could say. It writes every time we write, every time we dream or daydream. It is its own captain’s log, the transaction and receipt. It reveals...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Our Matriarchs of Letters
Victoria Woodhull, Carla Hayden, and Anna J. Cooper Every year, the VIDA Count reminds us just how far women have to go in order to achieve gender parity in the publishing world. This Women’s History...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Art of the Sad Birthday
Birthday Cake by Omer Wazir Are you a writer looking for a situation with built-in irony and ample opportunities for subtext? Have you considered a melancholy birthday scene? I’ve collected a few...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: A DOUBTER’S ALMANAC by Ethan Canin
A Doubter’s Almanac Ethan Canin Random House, Feb 2016 576 pp; $28 Buy: hardcover | eBook Mathematicians toil in obscurity, often for years, at work that will probably come to nothing. It doesn’t take...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When Parents Die: William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow and Claire...
Photo by Anathea Utley Last week my friend’s mother died, with brutal speed, of cancer. Ten years ago, my father died of a neurological disease so drawn out and cruel that we all wished for its end....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fleecing the Shears
As a two-year-old child, British author Evie Wyld went into a coma that lasted half a day. The reason: viral encephalitis. The disease took two weeks to work its way through her nervous system. As a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Time and Opening Chapters: Gaining Trust
Clock image credit: Daniel Waters, Co. Lately I’ve been thinking about time in novels. How to manipulate it, whether it should be linear or nonlinear, and what that choice means for a story. I began...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: PATRICIDE by D. Foy
Patricide D. Foy Stalking Horse Press, Oct 2016 398 pp; $18.95 Buy: paperback | eBook Reviewed by Julie Hart On the last day of seventh grade, all the girls passed their yearbooks around to have them...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Review: THE SUMMER SHE WAS UNDER WATER by Jen Michalski
The Summer She was Under Water Jen Michalski Queen’s Ferry Press, Aug 2016 204 pp; $16.95 Buy: paperback Reviewed by Kira Frank Sam Pinski is drowning. Sometimes, quite literally, but at least...
View Article
