By Flora Stadler I’m a writer. That’s what I tell myself when I’m explaining a poem to my son or just editing copy at work. And when I’m buying groceries or cleaning the litterbox or reading Facebook on my phone, I think, “I’m not this, I’m a writer.” I’ve been telling myself this for 30 … Continue reading I Used to be a Writer
Category: The One
By Flora Stadler I was pretty far into adulthood before I realized that failure wasn’t my cue to slink off in shame from something. Learning feels like failure if you’re not comfortable making mistakes. My late, great journalism professor William Serrin liked to jokingly say, “No indignity is too great.” For me, it meant you … Continue reading Marie Brennan: On Crushing Disappointment
By Flora Stadler I read Carol Anshaw backward, starting with her latest book, Carry the One, a few years ago. In it, Anshaw (a novelist and painter) captures the way time shifts everything, how perspective changes like a trick of light. She shows that addiction and brilliance and beauty can all be contained in one person. I've … Continue reading Carol Anshaw: Not Wasting My Readers’ Time
By Flora Stadler Author Paul Lisicky’s memoir The Narrow Door reads like a scrapbook elegy—its loss archived in love notes, fragments of feeling, snapshots of memory. The book (a New York Times Editors' Choice) documents the death of his longtime friend and fellow writer, Denise Gess, and the disintegration of his relationship with his ex-husband, writer Mark … Continue reading Paul Lisicky: An Essay, a Poem, a Story, and a Song
By Flora Stadler In this series, I'll ask writers a question about "the one." That one thing could be about their writing process, their personal experiences, or even writers they admire. The idea is to focus on a detail that (hopefully) reveals more about their writing life. My first installment in this series is with … Continue reading Poet & Essayist Cynthia Cruz
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