Search
-
October 15, 2016
Literary Tourism
Every time I visit London, I stay in a different area. This time, I’m just a few blocks from Chancery Lane, in the heart of Dickens’ London. I suppose all of London is Dickens’ London given the ...
-
February 14, 2014
Creative Writing as Martial Art? Part 1
I have always tried to define the ethos that guides my writing. Until recently, the closest I could come to a complete answer was the idea of writing as craft. I was taking literature out of the world ...
-
January 06, 2023Read an Funny, Gentle Excerpt from Veterinarian David Waltner-Toews's Memoir of Backyard Chickens
When we think about the relationships between humans and animals that have changed the course of history, it's easy to default to the obvious: the horse, the dog, the ox. But there is a more humble animal ...
-
May 24, 2022"You Will Start Writing Again When You're Ready" Dan K. Woo Shares His Inspiring Writing Journey
If Amazon has changed modern life in the West, Taobao, China's massive online marketplace (which is owned by e-commerce giant the Alibaba Group), may have changed the Chinese experience even more. So ...
-
April 19, 2017In Praise of Those Who Publish Nothing
Like many of my time zone, I spent the night of November 9th with my smartphone on the same pillow as my head, awakening every now and again to check, and get my mind around, the news. I also had very ...
-
April 29, 2014
Questions Not to Ask While Facing a Blank Page
Is enjambment supposed to be pronounced with a French accent?What do you do when you unpack a line and can’t figure out where you thought you were going in the first place?Is a metaphor just a simile ...
-
October 26, 2016The In Character interview, with Brenda Clews
Brenda Clews is the author of Tidal Fury (Guernica Editions), a narrative collection that is part love story, part examination of identity, and part exploration of power, mythology, and obsession. Illustrated ...
-
April 25, 2014
A Poem Can Be About Anything
I came across a cat writing contest on the internet. At first I thought that the poems had to be written by cats and was sure that my Iris Belle had a stanza or two inside her just waiting to creep out ...
-
May 14, 2015Graphic Novel (On TV) Month: the Book vs. the Film, Part 1
Inspired by my conversation with Merril Collection librarian Lorna Toolis, I started thinking about how a shift from book into film can change the subtext of a graphic novel. I’m thinking generally ...
-
September 01, 2022On Shooting Stars and Poetry as Fuel
To live at all is to grieve;but, once, to have it all at onceis to see a shooting star: shooting starshooting star.Arthur Sze (From Shooting Star) I read a poem every morning. Not because I have a pile ...
