Waiting to Be Chosen
Back in school, when I was 11-12 years old, we had dance parties when a semester would end. At these parties, girls would line up on one side of the room, boys on the other. As a girl, I wasn’t supposed to go to a boy and ask him to dance. I had to either […]
Continue reading →The Body and The Voice
Dear readers and writers, It’s been a while since we talked here. For me, the last couple of months have meant collecting the fruit of recent creative work and readjusting to the ever-changing landscape of corona restrictions as well as other major life changes. Things Are Changing These last few months have also been a […]
Continue reading →Claim Your Space
“It’s not a woman’s job to get smaller and smaller until she disappears so the world can be more comfortable.” ~ Glennon Doyle Melton In my previous Story Intensive classes, most participants have been women. Part of what we do during these guided creative sessions has to do with craft, but a lot is about […]
Continue reading →Tapping versus Diving
“I need solitude. I need space. I need air. I need the empty fields round me; and my legs pounding along roads; and sleep; and animal existence.” ~ Virginia Woolf Around this time four years ago, one of my writing mentors (Sarah Selecky, the wonderful creator of the online Story Intensive course) said the […]
Continue reading →Advent Writing Challenge
It’s Adventszeit here in Germany and for those of us who have turned writing into their religion, it couldn’t be a better time for another writing challenge right after NaNoWriMo. The concept is simple: every day until Christmas (Day 1 to Day 24) I will write a short text, without worrying too much about […]
Continue reading →Our Voices – Why This Book, Why Now
Currently, I am working on my first book. Our Voices is an experimental literary memoir, a deeply personal, lyrical, and political family story spanning three generations, exploring the impact of censorship and political oppression on self-expression and health through multiple points of view, including a child perspective. To receive updates about my book’s progress and […]
Continue reading →Wrapping up 2018
Earlier this year, I was telling you about how embracing life sometimes comes before writing. Now that the year is coming to end, I look back at it and count my blessings. 2018 has been a year when I published less poetry, essays, and fiction than in 2016-2017, and more conference reports and opinion pieces […]
Continue reading →Time to write
I haven’t sent out a December newsletter. Nor a January one. Instead, I gave myself permission to put myself first and act in a few well chosen directions that are meant to make me feel good. In between all of that moving forward, I found myself, although for a long time (for most of last year), […]
Continue reading →How do you define success as a writer?
What does it mean, to be a writer? Does it mean getting awards? Does it mean being published? In important literary magazines like The New Yorker or The Paris Review? No. There is a difference between being a writer and being a published author. There is no such thing as an aspiring writer though. It is […]
Continue reading →A new era
Many writers struggle with the act of not writing. With calling themselves writers when they don’t write every day, every week, every month. With questioning their identity as writers. Exactly one year ago, I talked about writing as a relationship. This year, I wasn’t sure for a long time whether my relationship with writing will […]
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