If the saccharine nature of Father’s Day makes you roll your eyes or get sick to your stomach , please read this. Okay? Continue reading
It’s Okay to Feel Ambivalent on Father’s Day
Teaching Writing
Thinking Like Edith Wharton
Mrs. Cole Porter WritingFor the last few years, I’ve had Edith Wharton on the brain.
See, I’m writing a book about the life of Linda Lee Thomas Porter, best known as the wife of Cole Porter. But before she was his wife, she was married for eleven years to the son of a robber baron/industrialist named Ned Thomas.
So: what’s the connection between Linda and Edith Wharton? Continue reading
Writing Machines & Writing Spaces
General Teaching WritingA little over a year ago, I had back surgery, and this has changed forever the way I write. Because I can no longer sit for long periods of time, I move around a lot. I have a few places where I write.
This is my main desk, command central, you might say. I have a home office. The picture on the left is what my desk looks like normally. The one on the right is what it looks like when I do a purge.
Book Reviewing in the Social Media Age: or, What if Mark Richard and I Had Been Facebook Friends?
Literary Citizenship Teaching WritingHere’s a question: What if I’d become a writer after–not before–social media? If you’re my age, do you ask yourself this question as often as I do?
Mark Richard was one of a handful of writers who made an enormous impression on me early in my apprenticeship. (I’d use Andre Dubus here, but he’s deceased, much to my sorrow.)
What if, after reading Mark Richard’s story “Strays” in Best American Short Stories 1989, I’d friended or followed him? Continue reading
Bringing New York Publishing to Muncie, Indiana
Literary Citizenship Teaching
Thanks to a grant from the Discovery Group, I’ve hired 11 Ball State students for internships at this summer’s Midwest Writers Workshop.
I’ve told you before about this conference, but here it is again.
Some backstory
Ever since I arrived at Ball State in 2010, I’ve been trying to come up with a way to expose students to the benefits of this conference. MWW is run by a group of dedicated volunteers. It’s not funded by Ball State University; it just happens to take place on campus. One day, I was talking about this to BSU professor Beth Turcotte (who knows everything about how to find the resources to make amazing things happen) and she recommended I look into the Discovery grant, and boom, I applied. In December, I found out I was a finalist and made a presentation to the members, and in February, I found out I’d been funded. I quickly put out a call for applications, and by April, I’d assembled my team. Continue reading
When and how do students write?
TeachingI found this great article the other day, “Seven Effing Great Ways to Build Your Writing Routine.” The author encourages us to find our writing “sweet spots” in order to maximize our daily/weekly output.
Consider the following questions:
- How long does your typical writing session tend to last?
- How frequently do you sit down to write?
- On average, how many words do you write per session?
- At what time of the day do you do your writing?
Back when I taught novel writing as a “writeshop,” my students wrote in class and we talked a lot about writing process. I’ve moved away from that model over time, but next year, I need to be more explicit and deliberate about talking to students about WHEN and HOW they write. I’ll share this article with them. Continue reading
Top 10 reasons to come see The Circus in Winter on 4/25
The Circus in Winter
1. Sutton Foster will be there. Not performing. Just watching. But still…Sutton freaking Foster, people.
2. My parents will be there. They are cute.
3. My sister will be there. She is cute.
4. The President of Ball State University, Jo Ann Gora will be there. Note that I put my family before President Gora but after Sutton Foster…please don’t read too much into this. I need to keep my job and my family relations intact.
5. Thanks to Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut and to the hard work of Beth Turcotte, Ben Clark, producer Sean Cercone and others, the book (the story, the script) is better. The plot is different from the version you might already be familiar with. There’s a new character!
6. There’s some new music, new songs by Ben Clark. So yay! new material by Ben! (You’ve probably seen him on teeeee-veeee…)
7. I hear the whole band will be there, too! Yay Joe Young on the mandolin! Yay Nick Rapley on percussion! Will Sean Muzzi be there, too? (He just got a gig playing for the Glenn Miller Orchestra!)
8. It’s a concert reading. And the next morning, they’re taking off for NEW YORK CITY to perform in front of a select group of investor-type folks. So we need to send them off with a bang, like in a pep rally sort of way!
9. WHERE IS IT? It’s taking place at 8 PM, 4/25 at the Cornerstone Center for the Arts, 520 E. Main St., in downtown Muncie, which also happens to be a block from my house, so yay! I can stumble home happily afterwards.
10. It’s free and open to the public, so tell all your friends!
The Next Thing: Professionalization in Creative Writing
CW Programs Literary Citizenship Teaching
Not every Creative Writing major wants to go to grad school, and to be honest, I’m not even sure if most of them want to be published writers. What brings them to our classes, I think, is a desire to be connected to the world of books. This essay by Dean Bakopoulos speaks to that desire.
Creative writing isn’t a pre-professional discipline. We’re not like some academic majors which prepare students for a concrete, discernible “next thing,” such as graduate study, this job, that career path. When my students say, “What I can do with this degree?” I talk about “transferable skills.” I point them in the direction of the career center. Continue reading
My students, my friends
Literary Citizenship Teaching Writing
It’s “In Print Week” here at Ball State–the In Print Festival of First Books. Each year, we invite to campus a poet, fiction writer, and nonfiction writer who have published their first books.
This has been a great year for me as a teacher; a number of my former students had books come out. We invited one of them to In Print–Eugene Cross. This is the introduction I wrote and read last night, and I think it speaks to a lot of things I blog about here–literary citizenship, community, and how to make it through the dark times. So: I thought I’d share it with you. Continue reading
For the man who called me for advice about how to get published
Literary Citizenship Teaching The Biggest Things WritingTo the man on the phone who called me today at my university office and asked if I had a few minutes to help him figure out how to get published.
First, wow, the phone rang. That hardly ever happens. I wasn’t sure it worked.
Second, no, I don’t have a few minutes. I’m getting ready to go teach a class, and I’m frantically trying to grade a few more quizzes. Continue reading