Writing Race Realities
(reposted from The Writer in the World, the blog for the Goddard College MFA in Creative Writing Program.) Last week, I was invited to talk to a class at City College in New York. Someone asked me about structure; specifically what I thought of the fact that none of...
Looking for a Good Read?
If you are looking for a great book to put on next semester's reading list, to propose to your book club, or just to spend the day with, PEN announced the finalists for $150,000 in prizes yesterday. How difficult is it to choose five books out of nearly 200? Very. I...
The Radical Imagination
Post State of the Union, the speech that is still sounding in my mind is one that was given back in November: Ursula Le Guin’s address at the National Book Award ceremony. Yes, she chided us for selling books “like deodorant,” but these are the words that are...
Where are you writing?
Where are you writing? Aerogramme's new list of retreats for 2015 includes Hedgebrook, an oasis for women writers near and dear to my heart: hard to get into (with 1500 applications this year!) but worth reapplying for, since, once you are a Hedgebrook alumna, you...
Seeding the Garden
Thank you, Hedgebrook, for the hollyhocks in my garden, and the Hedgebrook sisters in my email box, and the space to write and rewrite and have a manuscript to send out into the world today. These flowers are for you.
A Magical Place
I am blessed with more than one in my life. This one, Hedgebrook, I am privileged to share with so many amazing women writers, including some of the ones you see here: Holly Morris, Hannah Tinti, Monique Truong, Suheir Hammad, Gloria Steinem. I am so grateful to...
Everyone deserves to eat
I met Moses last night on the streets in the West Village where he is living. He lost his leg and his mother when he was thirty five, and now he is over forty with a shiny prosthetic that hurts. He carries four small plastic bags of stuff. On the street, things get...
What serves you?
A friend of mine recently advised me that I should refrain from doing TV shows like 20/20 because “they don’t serve me” and they won’t sell my memoir. But I don’t do them to serve myself, nor do I do them to sell my book. If someone bought my book expecting it to be...
“What got into her?”
Should a mother love her children more than herself? Shouldn't mothers sacrifice for their children? Put care for her children ahead of care for herself? What is society telling us a mother should be, and what does that say about how we value women? Moms Moving Out,...
Master class at Hedgebrook
2013 Fall/Winter Master Class Retreats Claiming Your Truth, with Rahna Reiko Rizzuto Dates: November 2 - 9, 2013 “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.” ― Muriel Rukeyser Storytelling is a radical act. By sharing our...