Me [waltzing in, whistling]: Gone from the blog for more than a year? Don’t know what you’re talking about. There never was a Time stamp. Nope. Wrong! Sad! Enoguh with the FAKE NEWS!!!!!! ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE! Believe me, I am a Excellent Writer and know Exactly how to use capitals for emphasis. Your pour…… Continue reading Revolutions
Tag: writing process
Here is the day
One of the first lines I wrote in the wake of The Vote was “I have lost my words.” I had gone mute with grief and rage and fear. But I had to teach, to stand in front of young scared faces who looked to me to tell them the world would not end. I…… Continue reading Here is the day
Joy outside the door
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips/Bidding adieu — John Keats, “Ode on Melancholy” August. You again. I lamented your presence a few years back, and I stand by it. This year you also coincide with a hellacious US political sh*tshow featuring an overtly racist, sexist, xenophobic, hate-mongering, spray-tanned stinkbomb of a presidential candidate…… Continue reading Joy outside the door
Marking time
*** “Is it okay to be me? … the answer was yes often enough that I went ahead and became her: the writer of plainspoken prose who would not shut up about her grief.”–from Dear Sugar, “The God of Doing it Anyway” *** Today is the day my father died. On this day, twenty years…… Continue reading Marking time
Maps and legends
Oh, little blog, I’ve neglected you so. If you were a garden, you’d be a shriveled, gasping mess of brown stems and dry soil that loose cats have turned into a litterbox. Oops. As usual when I sit down here after an absence, I’m all over the place, squirming and twitchy, struggling to make order…… Continue reading Maps and legends
Final days at Jentel: Draft 1, Done!
Yesterday, in my fourth week at Jentel, with three days left in my residency, this happened… …while I was working here: So today, I did this to celebrate… …knowing that I still have lots and lots of work to do to before the book is actually finished. Still, this place… …has been a little bit…… Continue reading Final days at Jentel: Draft 1, Done!
Interview with Prairie Schooner
I spoke with the good, good folks over at Prairie Schooner about the Book Prize for my collection, When Are You Coming Home?, which will be released this fall. Among other things, I talk about a visit to the optometrist. Because, sure. Here is the interview if you’re so inclined. And submit to the prize…… Continue reading Interview with Prairie Schooner
Dispatches from my window, or, adjusting the blinds
Early in the new year, I got up too early (after duking it out with my old pal Insomnia) and watched the sun rise. Squinting in the dawn light, I started writing in my notebook, a crucial activity that I had let slide in the past few months as I tumbled down the hole of…… Continue reading Dispatches from my window, or, adjusting the blinds
The dog will always bark
God damn dog is barking now and it is time to get to work anyways. … the amazing thing is that the work goes on. And one day it will be through. — John Steinbeck, from Working Days: The Journals of the Grapes of Wrath I first read Steinbeck’s Working Days, the diary he kept…… Continue reading The dog will always bark
I’m delighted at you
That title is the latest amusing pronouncement from my friend’s adorable two-year-old, whom I got to see yesterday via the wonders of Facetime. I found myself laughing even after we hung up, until my stomach seized up, until it had nothing at all to do with a child’s charming phrasing. I haven’t been laughing a…… Continue reading I’m delighted at you
Bryn Chancellor 