I went to the Women’s March—the Sister March in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois—on January 21, 2017. I don’t live there anymore, but it’s my hometown and I was visiting that weekend for my brother’s […]
The Women’s March in Champaign-Urbana
Advice for Writers Getting the MFA
First of all: yes, your professors are right when they tell you it is very difficult to get a tenure track teaching job at a college or university. It is very, very […]
What Are We But a Fire?
Since the U.S. election when somehow–impossibly, it had seemed–Donald Trump became president-elect, I have been vacillating between tears and panic. Subsequent events have proven many of our fears well-founded–the rise in hate […]
An Ideal Christmas
This is one of my visions for an ideal Christmas. It’s a short, happy confection, a dream apart from these dire times. I hope you take some time to imagine your ideal […]
After the Election: Create to Cope
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don’t let the bastards grind you down. —Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale In the wake of the 2016 U.S. election—I was going to write “the election,” which has […]
Starting the Conversation: Speaking Out About Sexual Abuse
Recently the poet Annie Finch posted on her blog a piece called “Things I’ve Been Ashamed to Share About Being a Writer Until Now,” in which she gets specific about what men […]
Meditation for Skeptics
A standard message for motivational speakers and writers of self-help books is to promise that, if you do what the book suggests, you will have success. Often there’s an element of magic […]
Depression is (Still) a Trip
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Week, we are re-posting this. And sending out our wishes for safe weathering of all storms, inner and outer. You stay alive you stupid asshole […]
Cat-Assisted Meditation
Meditation teachers will tell you to find a room and shut your animals out before you sit down to meditate. Too much distraction, they say. You should concentrate on yourself, they say. […]
How Can We Get There?
I recently got back from vacation (see my last post!) and one of my friends, as friends will, asked how I was readjusting to being home. I said, “On vacation, every day […]
The Gloria Sirens 