Blog
Sunday’s Thought
My friend Frank Soos ( a former Alaska Writer Laureate) has died riding his bike. It was an accident, I heard his wheel came off.I cannot explain how sad I feel right now, but I can tell you what another poet friend of mine, Naomi Nye says: "People do not pass away....
Papa Bob Lands & I Free Fall
In a workshop here at UAA's creative writing residency in Anchorage yesterday, writer Ed Allen told us that he divides the world into two kinds of people: the ones who have written novels and the ones who haven't. He reminded me of my dad, who used to say the same...
Writing School Stories and a Switch-Hitting Nun
Here's what I learned in my creative writing classes at UAA yesterday. Novelist Ed Allen (Mustang Sally) said: "In the beginning was the word...With no words we wouldn't be human... Take the words more seriously than yourself." Memoir writer ( Lifesaving) Judith...
Hello Dolly and God
When I was young we drove from New York to Western Pennsylvania every summer and spent weeks at my grandparent's house. They lived in a big old house in a small Allegheny forest town. We picked huckleberries for pies and caught crayfish in the creek. It smelled like...
Creative Writing
Sorry I haven't checked in more this week, I am in Anchorage at classes for my master's degree in creative writing from UAA. It is like camp. They keep us busy from early morning to late at night with lectures and workshops and readings so we can't get in too much...
A Bear, A Harley, and a Women’s Magazine?
I heard Chuck hit a bear with his motorcycle last night at 19 Mile. (Or the bear hit him?) I also heard the motorcycle was wrecked, but Chuck's okay. Keep him in your thoughts. No word on the bear, though. I tell you what, bears should know better than to bump a...
Reading E.B. White
I just read a few of E.B. White's letters. I'm back at my desk, for a day anyway, getting caught up on emails, some writing I want to do, and some homework for my summer residency next week at UAA. I like to "warm-up" with some reading, poems, or an essay, or author's...