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The first time I tackled the subject of fall 2011, I called it “Re-framing Failure.” It felt good to name the challenges, remember small successes, and mentally shift my perception of [...]

And so here they are in uniform (blue collared shirt, blue corduroy knickers, red knee-high socks): Triumphant. Giddy. Nervous. Proud. Thirty-six teenage creative writing majors who have been [...]

I have a confession: I’ve lived without television for more than half my lifetime, but every once in a while I get wind of a show that makes me stream, borrow, or burn whatever it takes to watch [...]

I might be tardy in this latest entry of the Boot Camp series, but I haven’t left my training behind. They say it takes ten days to make a habit. The first two weeks of self-imposed boot [...]

Last week I felt a little like a bowling pin, receiving news from all directions and displayed in the world with frightening vulnerability. Mornings, it often seemed I woke with a start, bracing [...]

And so we find ourselves here, Borders Bookstore, at 9:30pm on a Friday night in Traverse City, Michigan. It all feels a little post-apocalyptic what with larger-than-life discount signs [...]

Ahoy, dear blog readers! Friday, July 29th 2011 is the 6th BLOGIVERSARY of The Writing Life! That’s six years of 5-7 posts per week that have carried this writer through temporary [...]

As an Oregonian, I came surprisingly late to the Portland, OR indie folk rock band The Decemberists. ‘Round about the time they formed 11 years ago, I left the west coast for what I thought was a [...]

One of my favorite activities to do with students of any age is creating memory maps for an engaging nonfiction prompt about place-based writing. Working with teens, this prompt is doubly [...]

You wake up and already you are behind. There are 60 pages to proof for the magazine (due yesterday). There’s the 25-page portfolio critique for one of your clients. There’s 60 more pages on the [...]