How do you keep writing when big chunks of the world keep falling on your head? How often have we all said “If only all this would stop, just for a minute, and let me get my feet under myself!”
Read MoreWe are heading into a thoroughly privatized society—if you can call an agglomeration of people without a cohesive narrative ‘society’ anymore.
Read MoreI love Russian novels but why do Russians have all those names? How do I keep them straight in my mind?
The first question is easy--why. In the old days, people didn't have last names.
Read MoreBack in December 2010, a former writing student, April Davila (www.aprildavila.com), was pregnant with her second child, and asked me if I could submit a piece about writing and parenthood for her blog. Could I? Oy, could I ever.
Read MoreIt’s been an anxious season, an anxious year. Too many things going wrong on too many levels, too much progress that had been built, slowly and with much labor, wiped away with the sweep of a pen.
Read MoreI was invited to speak on a panel about the Shape of the Novel at AWP with Christian Kiefer (The Animals), with whom I frequently teach at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, also Jeff Jackson (Mira Corpora) , Esme Weijun Wang (the Border of Paradise) and Kirsten Chen (Soy Sauce for Beginners).
Read MoreIn honor of all the writers editing their work, I wanted to share this wonderful book with you, Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch—especially the portion on revision, its treatment of the revision process.
Read MoreI don't normally click on tantalizing celebrity gossip presented by sites bearing the titles 'BoredomRUs' or 'LookatME', but I hadn't had my coffee yet, and, recently having had a rather large birthday myself, I found myself entering a site portaled by a figure of a fleshy woman in a tiny red white and blue flag bikini.
Read MoreI can't get enough of Patti Smith. Not since first seeing her in Portland Oregon in 1979, an artist I'd never heard of, but the ticket was $2, so why not?
Read MoreThis question was posed for me by a reader on my Goodreads page. For me, the best questions are the ones that make me think more deeply about the issues involved.
Read MoreIt's been a full year since my friend, the writer Les Plesko, died. That night, I watched his YouTube station, over and over again, and wrote the poem On Watching Your YouTube Channel Late at Night.
Read MoreAnother Halloween Eve-- great candy in the bowl with the green hand that screams and laughs witchily, my artist daughter's spooky decorations adorning the garage, the stairs lined with glowing luminaria...
Read MoreLike myself and half the writers in LA, 600 people paid their hard earned money to see Jonathan Franzen at the Japan/America Theater last night, where he was hosted by the Los Angeles Public Library's ALOUD series.
Read MoreI had a letter from a reader who asked me to talk a bit more about dialogue. It's hard, I'll tell you that.
Read More1. Write the sentence, not just the story. Long ago I got a rejection from the editor of the Santa Monica Review, Jim Krusoe.
Read MoreWhen traveling, I often run into a terrible melancholy that Alain de Botton called the melancholy of the traveler--you're here in this glorious place, and yet, you're not making the most of it.
Read MoreMarch 1, 2010 6 p.m. Cold, socking in after a brilliant morning, a hazy day. The brightness now bled from the sky, the silent sundown, without color, taking with it the warmth of the day.
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