Yet more wonderfulness from The Writer’s Almanac on NPR. I want to schedule all of my teaching so that it ends at 7 and I can drive home to The Writer’s Almanac. Sunday it was the birthday of George Eliot, born Mary  Anne Evans near Nuneaton, England (1819). Author of Middlemarch, The Mill on the [...]

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Perfectionism is a primary writer’s block. We want to write–we just want to do it perfectly. Deliberately indulge in some “bad writing.” The danger of writing and rewriting at the same time is that it is tied in to mood. In an expansive mood, whatever we write is good. This makes writing a roller coaster [...]

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Great, funny blog on author photos from MobyLives (why don’t I read MobyLives more often?), which is actually from Flavorwire. Here’s an excerpt: 1. The Sophisticated Photograph (aka “The My-head-is-so-weighted-down-by-great-thoughts-it-requires-additional-support”) It’s the two-fingered peace sign of tourists. The “say cheese” of extended-family portraits. The pouty lips of Facebook users. The middle finger of punk rockers. [...]

Posted in Vermont Studio Center, books, cute photos of me, fiction, my writing, writers 1 Comment »

I’ve posted before about how I’m always writing lists. Lists of things to do (tomorrow, later, next week), lists of things to buy (glue, glitter, gum), lists of events coming up (B-day party Saturday, Mike and Jake’s going away party). I write probably three lists a day, minimum. That’s why my blog is covered in [...]

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Remember the Writing Marathon I did back in May? We raised 17,000 dollars and I promised every person who sponsored me would get a handmade, original postcard. Well, I’ve been slow to get them out but they ARE going out. So if you’re someone who’s waiting for a postcard it’s on its way soon, I [...]

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Today I head out to Northeast Oregon for a writing conference and retreat at Fishtrap. I’m one of the five fellows (that sounds funny… but I mean myself and four others have a fellowship for the week)– and I’ll be taking a writing seminar/workshop/class three hours every morning with the writer of one of the [...]

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Awesome news. WS Merwin is such a sweet, spiritual man–a Buddhist and Environmentalist– who lives in Hawaii. (pic from Univ. of Arkansas Daily Headlines). And, he’s 82! Today NPR interviewed him (click to listen) for just a couple of minutes and he read this poem, so tiny and beautiful: Separation by W. S. Merwin Your [...]

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I’m making my way through Tinkers, this year’s recent Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Paul Harding. Yesterday I took it to a coffee shop, had an iced coffee and a cookie and sat out on the patio and read for an hour and a half of uninterrupted bliss. I’m torn between really loving the book, [...]

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Back from NYC. Wonderful wonderful. Two weddings (in one night…) but no funerals thankfully. We did get to meet up with some of our favorite people: Aaron Hamburger and Anthony (by the way, Aaron’s new cooking blog , Aaron’s Sweet Spot, is fantastic!), Lee Houk and Kip (Lee’s book comes out in August! Yee haw!), [...]

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Peter Orlovsky and Allen Ginsberg 1956 My favorite postcard of all time.I think I bought it when I was about eighteen or nineteen, as a sensitive young gayboy in San Diego. Peter Orlovsky (on the right) was incredibly beautiful and also a writer, but definitely inspired some incredible poems by Ginsberg, his partner of 30 [...]

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