Category: Unbecoming
Future schmuture
No NEH grant again, a magazine acceptance, a solicitation of poems from a magazine I’d never cracked (!), several poem rejections, some drafting and revising, lots of Shenandoah work, a vague but persistent headache, short days and blustery cold–hello from a mixed-blessing November in… Continue Reading “Future schmuture”
Blue/ jazzed
The other day we got up early and drove to western Augusta County because the hikes there are much quieter than along the Blue Ridge Parkway, where foliage is peaking and so are the visitors. On autumn mornings here, especially if the day is… Continue Reading “Blue/ jazzed”
Hope, in spite of and because of
I felt really blue about dropping my youngest off for his second year of college, so I self-medicated by putting my head down and writing for long hours each day. The west coast on fire, more anti-Black violence, high infection rates–it’s not easy to… Continue Reading “Hope, in spite of and because of”
Maps, teaching schedules, and other demented pre-writing adventures
Questions I have researched recently for a writing project: Suture kits and how to stitch up wounds Microquakes, subsidence, and local geology The effects of psychedelic mushrooms and hazards of their long-term use (lots of this via my work computer, yikes) Fungal behavior generally… Continue Reading “Maps, teaching schedules, and other demented pre-writing adventures”
#TheSealeyChallenge & #TinyBookFair
I love so much about #TheSealeyChallenge, a project created by poet Nicole Sealey asking people to read a book of poetry a day for the thirty-one days of August. I’ve read some guilty-sounding social media posts, though, by people saying they just can’t read… Continue Reading “#TheSealeyChallenge & #TinyBookFair”
Like water wants to shine
I slid off the rocks pictured above at Willoughby Spit, Virginia, last weekend, cutting my toes and raising a mother of a bruise on the opposite shin. A couple of days before that, I fell off a bike, although that time I managed to… Continue Reading “Like water wants to shine”
Why You Should Be Reading About Menopause
You know how obsessions grow on you and into you, like fungal hyphae bursting through carpenter ants’ heads and disseminating spore? I’m currently fixated on fungi, but a few years ago I developed a more explicable obsession with perimenopause and its sequel. Like puberty,… Continue Reading “Why You Should Be Reading About Menopause”
Rainbows, snakes, and book launches
Among my latest thrills: nearly stepping on a hissing snake; a double rainbow over an empty Main Street; a frisbee arriving by mail; and, oh yeah, publishing my first novel. On launch day for Unbecoming, I was shut in my house responding to student… Continue Reading “Rainbows, snakes, and book launches”
