If you’re a writer or wish you were a writer, but can’t seem to get in the mood to do it, here are ways to get in the groove. Write regularly. Set […]
5 Mood-Boosters for Better Writing Productivity
Don’t Be Like Me: Take the Help, Dummy
One of the dumbest things I have ever done in my career as a poet was to waste the opportunity to get feedback on my poems from two advanced-career poets who actually […]
Why I Can’t Write
I am a writer, and I am drowning in time. I am actually drowning in different types of time, and I don’t know, really, which is first, or more important, or more […]
Will Making Art Make You Suicidal?
Are artistic people prone to suicide and depression? Does being a writer cause despair? Is there anything we can do about it? Listen as two award-winning writers and writing professors discuss the […]
Six Reasons to do NaPoWriMo
April is National Poetry Month, and many poets take on the challenge of writing a poem every day. It’s similar to NaNoWriMo (November), but fewer words. We’re a third of the way […]
Can You Make Art and a Living Too?
Recently one of my advanced creative writing students and I struck up an email conversation about how the question, “What will you do with an English degree?” is an especially hard one […]
“Gaslight,” a Poem by Tanya Grae
All we who have spoken out or are still speaking out in the #MeToo movement can appreciate and understand this poem by Tanya Grae, who writes “When a woman confides the violence […]
A Quiet Passion
I saw A Quiet Passion, the 2017 movie about Emily Dickinson (directed by Terence Davies, starring Cynthia Nixon) this month. I’m not a movie critic, but I am a poet and a […]
Quick and Easy Grammar: When to Use It’s or Its, Their or There or They’re, Your or You’re—and More!
Knowing the right way to write what you mean can sometimes be tricky, but you don’t have to memorize the rules of grammar to stop making common errors. Other people make […]
Writers and Meditation
I gave this talk as part of a panel with Casey Clague at the Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers conference a couple of weeks ago, so forgive the speech-like feel. […]
The Gloria Sirens 