Graduation season means that a flock of ex-students will be shot out into the world wondering what opportunities will present themselves and what successes will come next.
Thom Schramm’s The Leaf Blower: Love, Loss and Leaves
A leaf blower is a strange object to base a poetry collection around, one might think. It is not beautiful, it is not a part of any regular person’s life for more than an afternoon each summer.
A Letter To My Past Self: Help, I’m About To Graduate
So, past self, you must be wondering why I’m getting in contact with you. It has been a while, after all. A whole year.
Envy, Ingratitude and Hope: Why Elena Ferrante is a Bad Role Model
I have just finished reading Elena Ferrante’s first Neapolitan novel, “My Brilliant Friend.” I must admit, it’s wonderful. Yes, she’s captured an entire life. Yes, it made me cry and, yes, of course, I immediately wanted to go to Naples and try a Ferrante pizza (which is 100% real).
Reader’s Guilt: Is There Any Excuse To Ignore The Classics?
It seems a widely agreed upon fact that to be a good writer one must also read well. Fine.
The Rewards of a Resolution: Why I Rush My Writing
Another New Year has come and gone. Another year of writing, revising and wondering how time slips by so quickly.
Speaking As A Student: How Valuable is my Voice?
When I started writing stories, at perhaps seven or eight, I never lacked any confidence in my choice of subject matter. Comic books about superhero penguins, page-long stories about gremlins in the garden, copyright-infringing narratives about Bugs Bunny. These ideas were not ground-breaking,
Strangers, Stations and Surprises: How I Learned to be Inspired by New York
“You shouldn’t be reading things like that. You ought to throw that book away,” came the final words of the woman on the train station platform as I slunk, tail between my legs, between the closing doors.
Having lived in the Empire State for more than a year now, I have become used to idle small talk.
But this was not enough to prepare me for the woman on the train station platform.
How to Defend Your MFA: The Hairdresser’s Line of Inquiry
I was having my hair cut recently in my home town in the English countryside, enjoying a break from the perpetual motion machine of New York. Not a terribly interesting thing in itself, but when you’re in the summer bridging your two-year MFA program, with your thesis relentlessly vying for your attention, any moments in which you can sit and relax are worth noting. So there I was, happily trapped at the mercy of the hairdresser, trying to look uninteresting enough to avoid conversation, when:
“So what do you do?” she asks innocently.