May 27, 2013
MANY TIMES, STUDENTS in my classes teach me more than I teach them. Such is the case with writer Dan New. In Dan’s case,...
May 24, 2013
THE LAST FEW WEEKS have brought the bounty that May is known for. Let’s see if I can give a rich and quick recap...
May 21, 2013
In a new series called Writing Lessons, my first guest teacher is Leanne Shirtliffe, who tackles the topic of characterization. Her book, Don’t Lick...
May 14, 2013
THERE ARE ALMOST NO WORDS to describe how exquisitely happy I am to have a magazine piece of mine be chosen as the very...
May 10, 2013
WHILE RECENTLY GIVING A KEYNOTE ADDRESS on the power of memoir, I was introduced to the crowd by a scholar who invited me to...
May 8, 2013
I’VE NEVER LIKED JIMMY CONNORS, considering him among the triumvirate of people who temporarily turned tennis into a game played by bad-tempered men in...
May 7, 2013
A BIG GROUP GROPE. It’s the image that popped into my head after a friend wrote seeking some writing advice. A thoroughly politically incorrect...
April 12, 2013
MEMOIR WRITERS THINK we’ve got it made. That is, until we sit down to write, and all those stories seem to scatter away from...
April 11, 2013
MEMOIR ADAPTATION IS TRICKY, indeed, the assignment being nothing less than inhabiting someone else’s life and getting it right. Sometimes they are spot-on perfect,...
April 9, 2013
IT WOULD BE HARD to estimate the percentage of students who enter my classes wanting to write grief memior. Half, maybe? Seventy-five percent, perhaps?...
April 2, 2013
MY HUSBAND SINGS in a large chorale group, providing me on a regular basis with music of the season. Most recently what filled my...
March 31, 2013
NEW ON MY NIGHTSIDE TABLE are three books I read about in recent editions of The New Yorker. All sounded wonderful in those mini-reviews,...
