The first time I visited New York City, people asked me (after I revealed I was from Alaska) if I’d ever lived in an igloo. The truth disappointed them. I’d never even seen a real house made of ice. An igloo would’ve been much more exciting than our unremarkable middle-class house on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. […]
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | A Certain Necessary Faith Read More »
There are so many reasons I chose to quit my full-time job, start writing fiction, earn my MFA, and complete a novel. In part, I was frustrated by inequalities I observed in the world and angry about how helpless I felt to change them. I wanted to talk about racism and sexism, ask questions, challenge
Guest Blogger Meagan Macvie | Wading Into Deeper Water Read More »
“Guess what, Auntie C?” my niece tells me on the phone. “My class visited Emily Dickinson’s house in Amherst! We saw her room—her bed and her desk and everything. It was amazing.” Tamar is 13, an avid reader, and one of my favorite people. I ask her if she’ll go again with me when we
Guest Blogger Christine Byl | Investigating Emily Read More »
Explaining what I have been doing in Europe for the last eight months has proved almost as difficult as articulating what I write. (Umm…travel memoir? Personal essays about identity and place?) Since October I have rented apartments in Vienna, Madrid, and Cáceres, so I can explore these cities at leisure and write about my experiences.
Linda Ketchum | Thoughts of an Itinerant Writer Read More »
We originally published this post on March 7, 2012 It’s about 11 am, and I already have several things to forgive myself for. I intended to get cracking on a novel revision by 9 am. (First draft completed on Dec 31, and two months later, I still haven’t finished even the first round of editing
Andromeda Romano-Lax | Forgiveness, redux Read More »
Fierro presents “Places and Images: Writing Home”, his 49 Writers Reading & Craft Talk Series presentation. Today in the mail I received my Alaska paramedic certification. It basically states that for the next two years, in the state of Alaska, I am allowed and deemed capable to perform very specific outlined duties under the guidance
Guest Blogger Bryan Allen Fierro | Palpate Read More »
Mary Catharine Martin cooks dinner along the Nisutlin River in the Yukon in September 2014. (Photo: Bjorn Dihle) Six years ago this summer, I hiked up Juneau’s Granite Creek Basin with my partner Bjorn, looking for berries. It was my first season of gathering in Alaska, and everything about it was thrilling. Red, yellow, and
A great essay appeared a little while ago on NYMag about how and why parenting and writing conflict with each other. If you haven’t read it, check it out here, but I can save you a little time for now. The essay’s author, Kim Brooks, asks her friend Gina Frangello (also a writer+parent) why parenting
Matthew Komatsu | “Artist vs. Parent” Read More »
Last year I had a big poetry manuscript project that I was working feverishly on. This year, I knew that I would finish that project in the first quarter, and I worried that I might just stop writing. This is a common fear of writers, that the last thing we’ve written will be the LAST
Erin Hollowell: Haiku You Read More »
This week marks the closing of one interesting chapter in my life and the opening of another – how appropriate that this transition should coincide with the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. I like it when life comes neatly packaged, and if you wait long enough sometimes it actually
Linda: On Transition Read More »
