On Writing
Women Writing About Complicated Desire Saved Me When the Evangelical Church Couldn’t
What I’d been looking for at the convent, I could find in reading and writing. If other writers could channel their desires, I could use it, too.
So, You’ve Finished Your Book
When my students finished a draft, all I wanted them to do was sit inside of it for longer than was comfortable. To acknowledge and celebrate what they’d accomplished.
My Father Wishes He Were a Writer, Like Me
Writing was just something I thought happened to people naturally, that whatever wasn’t written was eventually forgotten. And I wanted to remember everything.
As a Nurse and Writer, I Work Toward a Culture of Care
Despite how fruitless both nursing and writing can feel, I choose to engage with both.
As a Disabled Writer, I Know My Stories Are Worth Telling
These worlds I dearly love, with science-fiction that supersedes the science in our reality, deserve Smart Drives and automatic doors and disabled heroes, too.
Every Day is a Writing Day, With or Without an MFA
There are far more writers ringing up your groceries, writers pulling your daily espresso shot, writers in the laundries of hotels and security tagging jeans at the mall and filling your prescriptions and pouring your beer into a clean cold glass.
Don’t Submit. Pitch.
Writers, take note: A submission says, please pick me, I’ll be waiting. A pitch says, catch me or you’ll miss the ball.
The Tides of Success: A Two-Artist Marriage Confessional
You loved his talent first. You hope that he will not love you less, for all that you do not now achieve.
Portrait of the Author as a Woman with Adult Acne
Will my face betray me when it’s time to talk about my book in public?
A Memoirist’s Terror & Insight: Writing My Ex-Husband on the Page
I wasn’t looking for pretty stories. I wanted messy, ugly, honest secrets.