March 2024
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Greens
In her later years, my Aunt Hazel could be observed on summer evenings pacing back and forth across her suburban front lawn eyeing the ground. Amid the standard lawn grass in her unruly yard were a host of edible infiltrators: lamb’s quarter, dandelion leaves, and what she called redroot greens. She picked them as she Continue reading
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Three Ways to Energize Your Writing
In my creative nonfiction writing classes, I conduct workshops in which students read and provide feedback on their classmates’ first drafts of writing assignments. The writers then use the feedback they receive to plan and write revisions of their work. In these workshops, I prompt my students to look for the “hot spot” in a Continue reading
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Enough
I move into an old house in Ypsilanti and winter there, braving sub-zero temperatures only to drive to and from work. The rest of the time I’m in bed, swaddling myself in a wool blanket through the twilight days of a Michigan January, shielding myself from the house’s drafts and chills. Chills haunt me through Continue reading
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Update on 25,000 Words by April Challenge
I’m surprised and happy to report that I surpassed my writing goal last week! My university was on its spring break, so I did not have classes. I could work from home. That allowed me to devote time first thing each morning to writing 1000 words. One day I wrote over 2000 words. My total Continue reading
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Not that Kind of Food Writer
I didn’t attend a culinary institute. I haven’t cooked in any of New York’s finest restaurants. I haven’t eaten at any of them, either. I can’t drop the names of any famous chefs and tell stories about my experiences with them. I can’t say that I was sexually harassed or humiliated or lauded by any Continue reading
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In a Writing Rut? Try Using a Writing Formula
I’ve always thought that I would like to have a writing partner. I envision a co-writer, someone to share a writing project with me, someone with whom I could collaborate. Or perhaps just another writer with whom I could cultivate a relationship of mutual support and encouragement. Most of us write alone. We may or Continue reading
Do you write about yourself and your experiences? Do you write about traumatic events in your life? Or, do you struggle to find time and motivation to write?
If so, this blog is for you.
Person on the Page 