They’ve started to trickle in: the not-unexpected rejection letters from the dozen or so contests I entered a few months back, inevitably telling me that my poetry manuscript has not been selected for a prize or for publication
Dew on the Grass
In March 2009, a dear friend chose to begin the process of dying “consciously.” What does that mean in this culture so notoriously youth-obsessed and morality-denying?…
Dem Bones
It’s been over twenty years since Natalie Goldberg urged us to “free the writer within” in what seemed, at the time, her groundbreaking (well, in some circles) book, Writing Down the Bones, first published in 1986. Yep, Reagan was still President…
Hammering It Home: Poetry’s Nuts and Bolts
Mary Oliver is a beloved contemporary poet. Her work is read at weddings and funerals and by Garrison Keillor on his radio show, “The Writer’s Alamanac.” Even my yoga teacher in Corvallis, Oregon, often began our class with inspirational lines from Oliver’s work…
Sunset, Sunrise
Last night, I dreamed of being on the ferry from Mukilteo to Whidbey Island in Washington. It was crowded with people, what I imagine it might feel like to travel in steerage, and the weight of all the passengers …
There’s No Place Like Not-Home
Trigger is not one of my favorite nouns mostly thanks to its too frequent use under sad and horrific circumstances in this gun-toting, trigger-happy country of ours. But one of my favorite books about writing is a little gem by Richard Hugo called The Triggering Town…
Be Bold, Be Free, Be Truthful
Present economic conditions have been serving up a familiar and unsettling feeling of déjà vu of late. Some days, it feels as if we are back in the late 1930s only with 24/7 media, social networking, iPhones, and twittering thrown in just to make us wonder if it’s really “Back to the Future” instead…
What’s in a Name?
Characterization is the lifeblood of fiction for many readers—and writers, too. Oh, I’m seduced by the twists and turns of plot as much as the next person. But time and again, what I’m most drawn to when reading is the effect that events have on the story’s characters…
Holding the Axe to Make the Handle
Sometimes it is by going back (often thanks to new translations) to study a timeless and ancient text that I find the most timely and relevant wisdom about the writing craft. During a recent bookshelf purge, I unearthed not one but two copies of Lu Chi’s Wen Fu (The Art of Writing). One is a slim brown…
Writing, the Water of Life
I confess: I’ve never read any fiction by Stephen King. I’ve seen at least one of his stories that was made into a movie—“Stand By Me”—and parts of “Carrie” way back when—I’m remembering the high school prom night scene in particular and Sissy Spacek not having the best of times….
