Columns

Improve Your Stories By Eliminating Agendas

March 29th, 2019

Recently, a student of mine handed in a story that was far and away better than anything he’d written since joining the MFA Program here at Arcadia University. In itself, this is not uncommon. Students have writing epiphanies all the time, and I’m always happy to see them. When I asked this student what he’d done differently for this story, he told me something I’ve never heard before from a pupil: he said this was the first story that he didn’t approach with an agenda.

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The Literary Influences Behind Jordan Peele's "Us"

March 28th, 2019

SPOILERS ABOUND BELOW

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The World of Yuri Herrera

March 28th, 2019

"Yuri Herrera must be a thousand years old. He must have traveled to hell, and heaven, and back again. He must have once been a girl, an animal, a rock, a boy, and a woman. Nothing else explains the vastness of his understanding."

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Library Love: Seed Libraries

March 27th, 2019

Header via Librarians, always looking to push the envelope. Makerspaces, Go clubs, Drag Queen Story Hour, and now... seed libraries. What newfangled thing will they come up with next? If you were like me last season and didn't think about putting in food plants until May when it was already freaking hot, the time to get smart is now!

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Amy Hempel, 'Sing To It,' and The Death Of Minimalism

March 26th, 2019

Amy Hempel has a new book out. This news raises one of two reactions from people. The one I’m looking for is eyes open wide. Breath held.The kind of physical reaction that comes about when the internal feeling is that we’re lucky to be alive now, in this moment, when there’s another Amy Hempel book. The reaction I get, always, is non-physical. It’s summed up in a single word: Who?

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Help, There Are Feelings In My Sex: The Origins of Girl Like A Bomb

March 22nd, 2019

Sex always seems to bring out the worst in people. The protagonist in Girl Like a Bomb, Beverly Sykes, loses her virginity at the age of fifteen. I was much older. At the age of 21, I was an awkward, ugly little thing with mousy brown hair who wore almost nothing but her boyfriend's t-shirts over stretched out bras and skinny jeans over scuffed plaid sneakers. I avoided eye-contact and kept my head down in books and did my best disappearing act.

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11 Classic Poetry Collections to Celebrate World Poetry Day

March 21st, 2019

March 21st marks the 20th anniversary of World Poetry Day! Started in 1999 by UNESCO, the goal of WPD is to “give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements.”

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Blew Your Resolution? Get Back In The Saddle

March 20th, 2019

Welcome, fellow losers! By now we’ve all failed in our New Year’s writing resolutions. If science knows anything about anything, 80% of us didn’t even make it TO March, let alone this deep into the month. That said, it’s not too late. That burning desire to get something done this year has died down, but there are still some embers glowing. I can see them. You can feel them. Let’s get back on track together.

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Reading Haruki Murakami: A Primer

March 19th, 2019

Haruki Murakami is probably the most famous Japanese writer in the world. His books have been translated into fifty languages and sold millions of copies globally. He’s picked up various prizes over the years, from the Gunzo Award for Hear the Wind Sing, his debut novel, to the World Fantasy Award for Kafka on the Shore, and most recently he was nominated for the New Academy Prize in Literature, though he requested his nomination be withdrawn so he could concentrate on writing and not media attention.

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Storyville: Reading Broadly to Write Better

March 18th, 2019

Stephen King once said, and I paraphrase here, “In order to write, you must read.” And that’s very true. I agree 100%. But what I want you to also understand is you need to read broadly in order to develop depth, originality, and emotion. Male as well as female writers. Different sexual orientations and identities. Countries of origin and cultures. Genres. These are some of the basic areas in which you can broaden the writing you read.

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