To be a writer is to write on behalf of, even if it’s on the behalf of herself. It’s to bear witness to her own life and to hold it beneath the glare of her writing. It is to study and prod in an attempt to understand – sometimes even when there is no understanding to be found or claimed – and to call attention to something greater than herself. [Read more…] about Writing as Witness
fiction
Write Right: Some Thoughts on Dialogue
Thoughts on Poetry for Poetry at Work Day
…a poem freshens the world. – Ted Kooser
The first story I wrote was about my grandmother who had fallen into a lake. My first poem, fittingly or disturbingly, used the same experience. The incident, something I knew and with which I was familiar, propelled me into the unknown. At first, it was the world of unknown letters and words – I wrote my first story when I was six or seven. The second was an unfamiliar world, but it turned out to be the world I needed.
[Read more…] about Thoughts on Poetry for Poetry at Work Day