Joy! Big Fiction Magazine (which published my novella a few years back) recently launched a podcast and invited me to be one of the first guests. I had such a fun and meaningful conversation with editor, writer, and wonderful human being Juan Carlos Reyes. Among other things, we talked about Writing while raising a family …
[Special note if you’re here because you came to my reading at The Yards, part of the Flour City Reading Series: Thanks for visiting! To read the full version of the essay I read from last night–and find out what happened with Mad Maudlin and me–here it is, “To Find Mad Maudlin,” in Cordella Magazine. …
or, Thoughts from a MatriArtist: A feisty encouragement to get back to your own creative work. I have observed: The raising of both novels and toddlers involves urgency and mess. Both yell cryptic phrases at you, which they expect you to decipher and translate to the rest of the world. Both involve days of difficult, unpaid …
An excerpt from my review of Alice Mattison’s new novel Conscience, just published in Consequence Magazine (under my married name). Consider: A man sets his baby on the sidewalk, walks a short distance away, and sets himself on fire. Does the fact that he’s brought his child to his self-immolation prove he is out of his …
My essay “How to Survive the Apocalypse” is out today in the new issue of Image Journal. It’s a fun/serious look at apocalyptic fiction. (Literary fiction. Not the Left Behind series.) Specifically: the excellent novels The Pinch by Steve Stern (Graywolf Press) This Is Why I Came by Mary Rakow (Counterpoint Press), and When the English Fall by David Williams (Algonquin Books). And from …
Given the legions (10,000? 15,000?) who attend the annual AWP conference (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), it should feel like a faceless sea. So how is it that, for every hour I spend there, I run into somebody I know? I’m not even especially well connected. I’m a very wee creature in the AWP zoo. …
I started this series because I started this season feeling skeptical and weary. If you want to catch up, I’ve written about my petulant Christmas card process, seasonal depression, the difficulty of hope, and being burnt out on giving and serving. Also: whiskey, crappy chocolate, and our troubling President-elect. Yes, it’s been merry indeed. What I haven’t …
“I tread warily on the ground of this story. Still, there is a story to be told. And your book is too good and cost you too much in blood to go unsung. Let us see, then, if I write you a letter—if I pretend no one is listening—if I can speak more freely.” That’s …
This week in The Common I reviewed a fabulously weird debut short story collection called Valparaiso, Round the Horn, by Madeline ffitch. And when a book is this rich in playful detail, it’s really challenging to choose just one title for your blog post. Rejected titles: Burning Your Grandfather’s Body × Feral Pigs and You × …
“Rule #11: I know that these rules will inevitably result in contradictions, conflicts, hypocrisy, and stress rashes.” —Sherman Alexie Yesterday Sherman Alexie wrote a marvelous response to a controversy about one of the poems he chose for Best American Poetry 2015–a poem ostensibly written by a Chinese poet, who turned out to be …