Columns

I Fell In Love With Reading My Work Out Loud - To Others

August 11th, 2022

About a month ago I was at my second grad school residency (the first to be in-person). Before going I’d made a goal to read my work aloud at every opportunity; and so over the course of 10 days in Vermont, I read the opening to a first draft of a YA novel on two separate occasions; read a very personal poem about depression; read some poems from my senior year of high school; and read work that I’d created over the course of the residency itself.

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How Do You Choose the Best Conventions and Writers Retreats?

August 8th, 2022

Header image via E. Hebishy As conventions return to normal schedules, there are a lot to choose from, whether you are a writer, reader, fan, or reviewer. Depending on your goals, the best conventions for you may differ from someone else, but generally speaking a “good” convention is one that delivers for all parties involved.

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10 Great First Lines Analyzed

August 5th, 2022

A lot hangs on a story’s first line. Pragmatically speaking, it’s the first place (well, after the title) where you might lose a reader, and so many writers approach first lines with self-consciousness or a kind of literary showmanship.

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Writing Advice for Non-Writers

August 4th, 2022

You’re not a writer, but you have to write something. HUGE fucking nightmare, right? You’re a best man, you’ve got to say a few words at a funeral, you’ve been asked to write something up to promote your business or to say a few kind words about someone. Let's not panic. I've got a few quick tips that'll guarantee you won't embarrass yourself.  What Do I Write About? Okay, so you’ve got your assignment. What do you say?

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Requiem For Elizabeth V. Aldrich (October 9th, 1992–July 10th, 2022)

August 3rd, 2022

Last month, the literary village suffered, and continues to mourn, the immeasurable loss of firebrand author Elizabeth V. Aldrich, known to the community as Eris; as Lizzie to her closer circle and father, James Allnutt. She would be thirty years old this fall.

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Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: 10 Dark Nautical Novels

August 1st, 2022

Summer evokes thoughts of warm sands and blue waters, but the ocean has a stranger, darker side. H.P. Lovecraft’s fascination with the depths is clear in “Night Ocean,” his collaboration with R.H. Barlow: “There are men, and wise men, who do not like the sea and its lapping surf on yellow shores; and they think us strange who love the mystery of the ancient and unending deep. Yet for me there is a haunting and inscrutable glamour in all the ocean’s moods.

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Is My MFA Worth It? For the Sense of Belonging, It Is

July 29th, 2022

Header image via T. Winstead I’ve been staring at a blank page trying to start this article for 30 minutes now. Because how do I encapsulate the experience of a lifetime into a few hundred words? How do I break down all the learning and growing of the first semester of my MFA program into one column? I’ll do my best.

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Why I Put a Book On A Gameboy Cartridge

July 28th, 2022

Photos by author I did it. I put a book on a Gameboy cartridge. That’s right, anyone with a Gameboy, 4 AA batteries, bird of prey eyesight, and a desire to read one of my books can finally achieve their very specific dream. But this isn’t about a victory lap, although it IS an achievement for me—I am NOT smart. This is about why. Why would I make the effort to do something so pointless and silly?

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Why Writers Should Read Across the Genres

July 27th, 2022

One of the many reasons I love writing so much is because it's a craft that continually presents new challenges, which in turn lead to opportunities to become a stronger writer. I don't believe anyone ever completely masters writing. It's too subjective of an art to perfect. However, it's a craft where we constantly learn from one another, whether it's new drafting techniques, ways to gather ideas, alternative narrative structures, or topics we've never researched before.

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The Birthing of "Dream Pop Origami"

July 26th, 2022

Back in 2002, after I’d returned from a stint in Burkina Faso for the Peace Corps, I realized I had so many intense and vivid life experiences I hadn’t written down in my journal, which I’d used mostly for diagnosing my mental health every day. At the time, I began jotting my memories down in part to remember everything before the details got blurry, in part to make sense of what had happened, and in part to cohere and connect all those disparate life events together. I also found consolation in language.

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