September 10, 2018
Little Monsters: On Sex, Exorcisms & Efes
I’d lay down my life for the fawn who, arising, at night to the sweet sound of harp and flute, saw a cup in my hand, said: “Drink your […]
September 7, 2018
Are Characters Real People?
Last week, in discussing flat characters, I ended with an argument that’s perhaps mildly controversial—that characters are not real people but just words on a page, artificial creations of an […]
August 30, 2018
Present in Process: An Interview with Caryl Pagel
Caryl Pagel’s vision has shaped not only her own poems, essays, books, and chapbooks, but two presses, a literary magazine, and now a new literary fellowship focused on inclusion, equity, […]
August 27, 2018
In Defense of Flat Characters
Every fiction writer who’s taken even an intro to creative writing class is likely aware of E.M. Forster’s famous distinction between flat and round characters, from his book of lectures […]
August 21, 2018
How Many Books Should a Fiction Writer Read in a Year?
I first started keeping track of every book I read in 2014, in a word document titled BOOKS. Before this, I never really logged what I read, and I think […]
August 20, 2018
The International Congress of Youth Voices: An Interview with Jamesha Caldwell
Earlier this month, young writers and activists convened in San Francisco for the inaugural International Congress of Youth Voices. Among those student delegates was 18-year-old “Baltimore-bred poet and storyteller” Jamesha […]
August 14, 2018
Mastering the Art of Prewriting
I talk about prewriting with my students a lot but often forget to do it myself when I work. Prewriting sometimes falls away in a busy writing schedule but actually […]
August 13, 2018
On “Ethnic Fiction”
Mark McGurl’s The Program Era is a wonderful book, and I’ve mentioned it several times before on this blog, but it does use the problematic label “ethnic fiction” to describe […]
August 6, 2018
On Beginnings
Last week, I discussed endings, specifically screenwriter Michael Arndt’s theory of endings as they applied to works of literary fiction. In addition to his video on endings, Arndt’s website also […]
July 31, 2018
In the Summer You Really Know: on living, writing and not publishing
Summer has always been my least favorite season and, weirdly, my most productive one. Being that for most of my life I’ve been immersed in academia in one form or […]
July 30, 2018
On Endings
In 2014, when I was still entertaining hopes of being a screenwriter as well as a fiction writer, I went to the Austin Film Festival and heard a lecture on […]
July 25, 2018
“the little song pulsing”: An Interview with Oliver de la Paz
[Continued from “Scaffolding”] * When I read Oliver de la Paz’s poem “Diaspora Sonnet 25,” which the Academy of American Poets featured as its Poem-a-Day selection earlier this month, I […]