We met one summer in the 1980’s when we were both artists in residence at the remarkable Blue Mountain Center, situated on 1600 acres of woods in the Adirondacks in New York State.
Those Soft Kentucky Voices
We stopped yesterday in the middle of my class on writing memoir to listen to the verdict in Minneapolis that will send the policeman who murdered George Floyd to jail on all three counts.
The Techno Chasm
We may not be able to stop this radical change that is ruining so many but that does not excuse us from doing whatever we can.
Father and Dame Ivy
During a vacation trip to England years ago, I became aware, to my surprise, of my father’s fascination with two British writers: Sylvia Townsend Warner and Ivy Compton-Burnett.
Goodbye and Hello
The degree of change that has transpired since the long overdue advent of Black Lives Matter and the murder of Breonna Taylor in Louisville last spring is summed up for me in a Community Forum essay by columnist Quintez Brown.
The Lament of the Long Haul Trucker
I can’t forget an eloquent letter in The Santa Fe New Mexican recently from a man who is invisible to most of us except when his monster eighteen-wheeler rushes past on the throughway.
Jump Start
Tillie Olsen, for me, is a startlingly loud call to continue to work, no excuses allowed.
Shooters
How often have those of us—and there are many—whose sharp intelligence and ambition have not provided an escape from unresolved psychological problems found a route to normalcy through intellectual achievement and acceptance?
Why Teach
I want to persuade writers to use all five senses in their writing, instead of just the visual—and to sharpen visual descriptions with fresh, unexpected adjectives.
Doing the Laundry
I was converted a long time ago—one of the possibilities of privilege—to the belief that we women have more important things to do than the laundry.