You can call me Ms. MFA
My manuscript is done, the paperwork is done, the administrative staff in the English Department are so sick of taking my calls that they tell me to stop worrying. My…
My manuscript is done, the paperwork is done, the administrative staff in the English Department are so sick of taking my calls that they tell me to stop worrying. My…
I gave the house on St. Andrews Place a quick once-over on my way up the walk. It was wide, with a nice fat yard, two stories and a big…
Today I read Dark Lady of the Silents, the autobiography of actress Miriam Cooper. She starred in two of D.W. Griffith’s biggest films, possibly two of the most important films…
At Ward 6, J. Robert Lennon writes: If you’re a writer, you like process. Occasionally I’ll meet a book enthusiast who has an idea for a book. “Now all I…
Good news: Maud Newton throws a story into the universe, the universe throws her a $1500 prize. Good news: I’m catching up with back issues of One Story and “Bar…
Theory is good but it doesn’t prevent things from existing. – Charcot to Freud
It’s stuck in a vortex of two papers due very soon. One paper is for my Narratives of Teaching and Learning class, and it’s actually a two-parter. I’m spending about…
I found, after spending ten years as a journalist, learning to say exactly what I meant in short sentences, that I must learn, if I was to achieve literature and…
Racial politics in Pittsburgh, from the MFA perspective. It’s like it’s the 70s. Or the 50s. Or maybe even the 30s. Jane Smiley on Jennifer Weiner’ Certain Girls. She condescends…
Pitt’s online literary magazine Hot Metal Bridge has launched its third issue. I particularly love the short story by Dan Chaon and the interview with Tom Perrotta. But I admit…