You watched or read Annie Proulx’s recent speech at the National Book Awards, didn’t you?
If you didn’t, you really must. Her talk is at once urgent and quirky and eloquent and moving, like her novels. And the most important part might be her opening line:
Although this award is for lifetime achievement, I didn’t start writing until I was 58. Continue reading “Not Too Late”
The other day, one of my students described this beautiful memory for me, about the heating coil to the hotplate her parents cooked on. She recalled the cool, smooth feel of the coil in her hand, how she nestled it into curled grooves when screwing it into the plate, how when it burned out, her mom would send her to buy a new one at the hardware store for a quarter. Continue reading “Writing Away Shame”
Fall is a special time, writers. There are just so many publications and contests and festivals and fellowships looking for your work. At Poets & Writers magazine right now, they’ve posted more than 75 fiction contests with deadlines between October 15 and the end of the year, and more than 100 for poetry. Continue reading “Submit!”