There was once a time when I did not live without the specter of illness around every corner? I lived a life that wasn’t conditional on the spread of a virus? I spent almost five decades making plans that weren’t likely to be cancelled anywhere, any time, with little notice, because of a nasal-swabbed test result? Could it be true?
Have you made a New Year’s Resolution to be more creative? Are you at a bit of a loss on how to make it happen? Have you already broken your promise to […]
I am buying graduation decorations and stringing them up. A big “Congratulations” banner will hang across the window on the back porch. The new outdoor lights dipping down from the upstairs balcony […]
To help you understand what it takes to have the kind of success Ann’s enjoying right now, I asked her a few questions, and here’s what she said.
The image of an Optimist Dinghy came quickly to my mind. The last few blocks of my morning walk are usually a transition from daydreaming to the day’s to-do list. Not this […]
Are you among the many new fans of Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman? She is an exquisite talent and storyteller. She is obviously gifted. While her talent may have been born, it was […]
I’m having a creative crisis along with the stress of the global pandemic outside my door and the uncertainty of life when we emerge. I’m trying to take the ‘extra’ time I […]
I accomplished one thing this weekend. It took all weekend for me to fix three porch chairs. I attribute this to the phenomenon that all things require twelve steps. Here are […]
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 […]
by Vanessa Blakeslee Since 2008, the year I originally wrote this essay as part of my application for the Gift of Freedom Award, the conversation about the challenges women writers face in […]
The Gloria Sirens 