Introducing the Mother-Reader …
Everything changes after a child is born. But even the simple act of reading a book?
Parent-reader-writer-teachers weigh in here, in my latest blog post for Ploughshares.
Category Archives: Blog Posts for Journals
Agatha Christie and her surfboard, “Fred.” Courtesy of the British Surfing Museum.
Speedos! Submarines! Ukuleles! Beach-Writing!
Take your writing on vacation in this post for the Ploughshares Blog.
And you can always see all of my Ploughshares Blog posts here.
On Louts, Shooting Dogs, and Antonya Nelson
It started because I wanted to shoot a dog. In a short story, that is. The stories for my first collection— then my doctoral dissertation— were character-driven epiphanies hinging on a character’s decision to act, or not to act. A story with a gun on page 1 and fired by the ending—this sounded like big, explosive fun. So I shoehorned a dog-shooting into a story that really didn’t need it.
My dissertation advisor looked over my draft and said, “If you want to shoot an animal in a story, read ‘Fair Hunt,’ by Antonya Nelson.”
Read the complete post at The Missouri Review.
The Nifty Trick of Dan Chaon’s “A Little Something to Remember Me By”
Who would condemn the grieving parents of a long-lost, likely murdered boy? Who would turn these parents’ tears to treacle, their mourning into manipulation— and make the reader hate them, too? Dan Chaon would. It’s a nifty trick. And it’s one of the reasons I adore “A Little Something To Remember Me By,” from Chaon’s second collection, Among the Missing.
Read the complete post at The Missouri Review.