#344: Who Let The Dogs Out?

They let themselves out, thank you very much. On a warm, August night, 11 pm, something outside catches their attention, and the larger of my two dogs simply stands up on her hind legs and, using the handle, opens the latched screen door. And they run. Together. Free to run and roam. They cross the busy streetContinue reading “#344: Who Let The Dogs Out?”

Life Envy: The FOMO

  I want to be living that life. By myself, late at night, sitting in the dark of the back yard with my phone, the dog, and a drink, I actually heard myself say this out loud: I want to be living that life. It’s crazy, I know, but looking sometimes at pictures of peopleContinue reading “Life Envy: The FOMO”

The American English Teacher Rereads a Clean Copy of Beloved

I’ve posted a slightly different version of this piece before, two years ago and some change. It seems appropriate to post this revision now in honor of Toni Morrison, whose fiction has over the course of my adult life completely changed my heart and my brain in immeasurably powerful and positive ways. The American EnglishContinue reading “The American English Teacher Rereads a Clean Copy of Beloved”

Dispatches from Writer’s Camp: All Good Things. . .

Our time together had come to a close and I was alone in the dorm where we stayed at Macalester College for the annual Warren Wilson MFA Alumni Conference. It was strange, that quiet, after all that activity, after all that brilliant conversation, after the nightly readings and daily classes, the meals together three timesContinue reading “Dispatches from Writer’s Camp: All Good Things. . .”