Writing is difficult. Really, really difficult. Growing up, I always thought that would be the hardest part of my dream of becoming an author. Actually finishing a book, a book people would want to read,…
Monday 28 December 2020 Dear C, Having written you yesterday about Annie Liebovits and Susan Sontag, I want to mention today that I took the phrase “Wisdom Project” from Sontag in her collection, At the…
As I was driving in the Central West End this afternoon, I realized that I had not asked a friend to do a Share the Wealth with us this weekend. Then, knowing that Christmas…
In late 2019, my partner and I conceived a garden. Rooted in dusty recollections of summer gardening with grandparents, our memories animated a vision that inevitably turned out differently than imagined; as reality eventually supplanted…
This Is What I Can Do When it comes to righteous indignation Reshma makes Arundhati Roy seem timid At a public reading of The Book of Mev I made sure she went last and read…
My Psychic Powers Acknowledged in This Morning’s Email “How is it that you always know What I need to hear Even when we are 950 miles apart?” When I Listen and Re-listen to Your Messages…
Alive beyond Alive My friend Loyola worked at Mount Saint Joseph and knew Pete Mosher. She and I reminisced before Pete’s funeral. Cab Yau picked me up at Loyola’s that morning and we went to…
Sign Up by Lindsey Trout Hughes Hi, Mark! I hope this note finds you well. I saw your post last week about the spring writing course. I asked Katie Consamus over coffee if she’d like…
Make Lists Not War Dear Cami, One index of a profitable reading experience may very well be in the marginalia we make. For instance, I read Ed Sanders’ collection of poetry Let’s Not Keep Fighting…
I first learned this Portuguese word when Mev Puleo was working on translating her interviews with radical Brazilian Christians in the early 90s. A one-word English synonym she gave me was “availability.” In her book …