Letters From Kelly

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!”

As writers, we talk a lot about our need to cultivate empathy, toward our subjects, our characters, our readers, our world. But what does that mean, exactly?

I could give you a long-winded definition, but instead, let’s just take a look at “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks: Continue reading “Cultivating Empathy”