The Writing Life

Only the maple trees have begun their slow turn toward brightness before death, here in the North Carolina mountains. As I kicked off my 2023-24 season of mentoring and writing, I could not bear [...]

For about four years now, I have marked the start of summer by unplugging my desktop computer, removing it from my desk, and putting it in the closet. Sure, I have a laptop, but I keep that [...]

2023 Right to Write Award Recipient: Erica Lee Smith About Erica Lee Smith Erica Lee Smith was born on one peninsula (Korea) and raised on another (Cape Cod). For a decade in her twenties, she [...]

2023 Right to Write Award Recipient: Neena Elizabeth Pottoore “I write by stealing time. The hours in the day have never felt as if they belonged to me.” Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting For [...]

Can you feel the buzz and beam of spring? Can you sense the cultural and human need for a shift … for something to break loose? I can. Spring is bursting here, from treetop to garden soil, and [...]

I was recently introduced to the satisfaction cycle, a concept I found my way toward by exploring somatics and co-regulation. In short, in order to fully rest, restore, and relax, we need to be [...]

We are healing and cruising along here in our little corner of these native Cherokee lands, colonially known as “Celo, North Carolina.” Ever since learning about the U.S. Department of Arts & [...]

If you’re like me, you may be feeling a bit shocked to find yourself already staring at the final pages in your annual calendar, flabbergasted that the year is coming to a close. August was a [...]

A while back, I wrote an essay titled “how to be B-” and your responses were overwhelming. Collectively, we achieved tremendous success being B-, which included things like: not dusting, not [...]

Summer has been breathless–bounty, fatigue, gratitude, grief. Bursts of joy fill my world when River leaps from the school bus (!) or Brad returns bleary-eyed but blissed-out after a weekend of [...]