The VW hippie van smelled of incense and insurrection. Neil Young sang on the tape deck. Issues of Rolling Stone lay about, dog-eared, coffee-stained. The heater blasted on full. The woman driver snapped gum with her big teeth as we rolled south into Utah. In military fatigues and wire-rim glasses, the guy who looked […]
Kim Heacox: Incense and Insurrection Read More »
“Brevity, brevity, brevity,” Mrs. Jovanovich said to me in high school senior English. “What’s wrong with brevity, brevity, brevity?” “I dunno,” I replied. “It needs to be said only once.” “Oh, yeah… ” Man, was I stupid. Bless her heart, Mrs. J. must have seen something in me nobody else did: a break in my
Kim Heacox: Follow Your Passion Read More »
Kim Heacox On a cold November morning distant in my past yet vivid in my mind, I walk across London’s Abbey Road. It takes less than a minute, the same as I imagine it took the Beatles when photographed for their famous album cover. The sun shines bright in a blue cloudless sky. A woman
Featured Author: Kim Heacox Read More »
Tomorrow, my wife Joan and I will begin a slow drive south, to Anchorage and then the Kenai. Homer is the destination, though not really the point. I often create this way. In motion, my mind clears, and, as in sunlight after a storm, worlds both fictional and real reappear. At every stop, I pull
Daryl Farmer: On Journeys and Journals Read More »
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it’s understood.” T.S. Eliot Earlier tonight, I sat at a table with four poets. They are each successful and brilliant, and each came to poetry in their own unique way. One of them stumbled into a prestigious graduate program only after dropping out of school. “The last thing in the
Daryl Farmer: To Write Good Prose, Learn to Love Poetry Read More »
Daryl Farmer I’m in Seattle joining the hordes as we ride the escalator to the top floor of the Washington State Convention Center. This is AWP, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual Conference and Book Fair. The conference is a writer and book lover extravaganza: panels, speakers, readings, social events, literary journals
Daryl Farmer: AWP and the Joy of Community Read More »
Like many Alaskan writers, I’m getting excited for AWP, the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s Annual Conference to be held in Seattle this year, February 26 – March 1. It’s my first time going to AWP, and I’ve been wondering what to expect, and how to prepare. Aside from meeting up with friends I
“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next to find ourselves…” Pico Iyer. I left Alaska last November for a winter’s worth of travel. After 10 years of public school teaching and almost as many living in rural, small town Alaska, I needed a break. Leaving one’s home digs for new environs, no
Lynn DeFilippo: The Traveling Journal Read More »
As I sign off here as January blogger for 49 Writers, I’d like to thank Deb Vanasse and Linda Ketchum for giving me this opportunity. Thank you for your patience and thoughts and communication – it has been a true privilege. Through the blog comments, and individual emails, I also feel like I’ve started to
Brendan Jones: Look forward to being back Read More »
I just got back from walking the dog. We went down Wayne Place, along Lake Merritt, then through the park where they don’t allow dogs – Oakland police, unlike San Francisco police, have better things to do – and back again. My first time out of this chair in a long, long time. When I
Brendan Jones: Espresso Beans, Book Burning, & Writing About Small Towns Read More »
