Category Archives: writing
Catcher in the Rye: A Love Story
One of my least favorite books as a teenager was The Catcher in the Rye; I read it at least three times, convinced that at some point, I would understand why this was the great American novel I kept reading about, the one that everybody loved so much. And I hated it! I thought Holden …
52 Songs, 52 Stories
Someday, if I’m feeling ambitious and ready for a challenge, I’m going to do a version of this amazing project: 52 Songs, 52 Stories. The blogger chose a song each week, posted a video for that song and wrote a very short story inspired by the song. He was inspired by several projects, including A …
Book Reviews: A Visit From the Goon Squad, A Fortunate Age
Sometimes you read a book because you’ve chosen it specifically, and other times, books land serendipitously into your life. Recently, my mother passed on a book she’d missed in her book club, and I picked up another at The Book Thing of Baltimore when I dropped off the results of my recent book purge. Despite …
Blogiversary
Like Anjali, I recently passed my 500 post milestone for this blog, which I first posted in on July 12, 2007. That also means that my blog will turn five this summer, the same year that my children and my marriage turn ten. That first month, I had stopped posting in an old personal blog …
Published!
The new issue of the light ekphrastic is up, and happens to be the issue in which my work is featured! Come read the poem I submitted, as well as the poem I wrote, inspired by a painting, and see the painting inspired by my work! This is a really beautiful project, and I’m thrilled …
Writing Goals: Jumpstart Edition
One technique that works for me in goal-setting is making sure I have some concrete tasks to check off as I make progress, in addition to larger conceptual themes. In keeping with my writing jumpstart program, here are my specific writing goals for 2012: prioritize regular writing time join and regularly participate in and attend …
Jumpstarting My Writing
As important as writing is to me, and as central as it is to my identity and conception of myself, when something has to drop from my daily juggling act, too often, it’s writing. So for 2012, I’m determined to jumpstart my trajectory as a writer and poet. This is a broader goal, not a …
Random Bullets of Grading Exams
Reason 14,950 I love teaching freshmen: they write me little notes in the margins of their exams, with exclamation points and smiley faces, and make little jokes about the questions and their answers Quandary #1: if my students do very well, on average, on a section of their exam, is it because they studied effectively, …
Lice: The Sequel
If you need me, I’ll be crying quietly over in the corner, while doing laundry. Sigh.
Twitter, One Year Later
A year ago, I succumbed to my curiosity and joined Twitter, despite deciding six months previously that it wasn’t for me. Since then, I’ve tweeted over 800 times and follow more than 110 people, and have over 50 followers myself, which are tiny numbers in the grand scheme of things, but also show, I think, …
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