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November 07, 2019
Where Ideas Begin
Questions every writer is familiar with: “Where did you get the idea?” or “How did you decide what to write about?”How did Denis Johnson decide to make a character obsessed with Elvis Presley’s ...
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November 23, 2019Getting Over Getting Stuck
That Tiny Life, the title story of my collection, is about family—about distance that grows between families over time. I can tell you that now because the story is written. Writing it, I didn’t know ...
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November 19, 2019Revision Part Two, Long Projects
Short stories, essays, or poems are wonderful to revise—I say this while I’m revising a longer project, but story length does make a difference. You can reading through a short draft in an afternoon, ...
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November 26, 2019
Workspace
1. Desk: the desk belongs to my partner, Bradford Werner. He covered it in plastic during his university years. I poke fun of him for it, but the wood is pristine. I cleaned for this photo, but if you ...
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February 06, 2016Both Silly and Serious: Part Two of Desert Pets Press in Conversation
Yesterday I posted the first part of an interview with Emma Dolan and Catriona Wright, founders of Desert Pets Press. Catriona talked about their evolution from walkie-talkie using friends to chapbook-making ...
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November 08, 2018Karl Kessler & Sunshine Chen Honour Waterloo's Vanishing Trades with Stunning Portraits in Overtime
From shoemakers to sign painters, felt workers to glove cutters, there are countless skilled, traditional trades and jobs that are slowing disappearing from our increasingly mechanized existence. With ...
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October 28, 2013
A Response to Ann Elizabeth Carson's We All Become Stories, Blue Denim Press, 2013
Ann Elizabeth Carson’s WE ALL BECOME STORIES is a generous book. This recounting of journeys the author has made with a baker’s dozen of elders (she makes the thirteenth) is an intimate exploration ...
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March 19, 2021"I Adore Their Fortitude, Ferocity, Verve, and Heart" Christy Ann Conlin on Her Past Characters Returning in Her Gripping New Novel
Coming off the success of her 2019 short story collection (not to mention her two widely-praised novels that preceded it), Christy Ann Conlin is back this season with The Speed of Mercy (House of ...
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August 12, 2021"There is Power in Sharing Ideas" Bree Galbraith's Hold That Thought Encourages Kids to Let Their Ideas Shine
In the middle of the night, Finn feels something strange and exciting. Something forming slowly, getting sharper and clearer each moment: it's an idea. And the idea fills Finn with a thrilling kind of ...
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November 10, 2020"My Mind Instinctively Starts in Halloween Mode" Peter Counter on Horror as a Safe Space
Just because spooky season is over doesn't mean you have to pivot to Lifetime movies and all things feel-good. If you're someone who loves a good shiver up your spine in any month, you won't want to miss Peter ...