August 3, 2017
Literary Firsts & Worsts
A writer approached me after my workshop at Literary Cleveland’s Inkubator event to tell me this was the first writing conference she’d ever attended. Her comment got me thinking of […]
April 25, 2017
Payoff
I’m writing this blog post minutes after dragging myself out of bed, where I hit the snooze alarm twice. I can see pink in the sky out the window over […]
April 26, 2016
My Secret Life as a Fraud: On Imposter Syndrome
I was a recent college graduate when I landed my first paid freelance assignment. I was tasked with covering an adult-education class for a local publication, a simple piece that […]
September 19, 2011
Short Takes: Mere Anarchy is Loosed (Again)
The Poets & Writers 2012 MFA Rankings have–repeatedly, it seems–managed to cause quite a ruckus. Now: one Columbia grad is upset that his alma mater’s place on the list has […]
July 28, 2011
Mix Tape: The (Humiliating, Isolating, and Downright Harmful) Writing Life
Wayne Koestenbaum’s book trailers for Humiliation, “Dear Wayne, I’ve Been Humiliated,” include “Hot Date, Cold Sore” and “Fat or Pregnant? (Subway Mistakes).” How to help your kid become a writer […]
November 22, 2010
The Walking Deadline
During a particularly grisly scene on a notably gory TV show, the leader of a ragtag handful of survivors of the zombie apocalypse pauses to recognize that the (un)dead cadaver […]
July 7, 2010
Firsts and Flings and Broken Hearts and Back in the Bookstore Saddle
Anyone reading the blog of a literary magazine must know what it’s like to lose a favorite independent bookstore. I visited Madison, Wisconsin last weekend and thought, as I always […]