Guest Blogger Chelsia A. Rice on Writing and Same-Sex Families

Boolean Searching In 2001, I started college to pursue my dream of becoming a writer. I wanted to get an education that would help me write my experience of being raised by two moms in suburban Oregon in the 1980s and 90s, but even then, in my formative years as an academic, I knew I […]

Dream of the Unified Media: Jory Mickelson on The Cure’s Disintegration

Check out my mini-essay on music over at Charles Jensen’s blog Kinema Poetics! Dream of the Unified Media: Jory Mickelson on The Cure’s Disintegration: “Coming Out & Coming Apart”     Plainsong I can feel the heavy wash of synthesizers vibrating their way out from the scratchy…”

Why are You Still Wasting Your Time with This?

Second year MFA candidates read from their work at what people at the University of Idaho call a “symposium.” It is a chance for writers to showcase their work and share just what they are up to in their writing lives. After reading, students are asked questions about the pieces. There is also a potluck […]

A Different, But Still FANTASTIC Essay by Mishon Wooldridge

Autobiography for the Queen of Cups 1. Butter clams were the first food I ever took directly from the earth. Goo and grit and salt. Those were easy. My brother and I six and five years old, we carried the bucket between us. My dad in his late 30’s, hauled two shovels and told us […]

Book Notes on American Romances by Rebecca Brown

Paperback, 162 pages From City Lights Publisher June 2009 ISBN: 9780872864986 The first thing I noticed about American Romances was the blurb on the back covers by Thurston Moore, guitarist for Sonic Youth. So when I opened the book and saw quotes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work, I was surprised. For me, there was no connection […]

Book Notes on Close to the Knives by David Wojnarowicz

Paperback, 288 pagesPublished by Vintage, May 1991ISBN: 9780679732273 One of the perks of interviewing LGBTQ authors is that they love books as much as I do. Even better, they love books that I didn’t know existed. When asked about favorite books, author Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore said that Wojnarowicz’s work was “the first book that ever […]

Book Notes: King of Shadows by Aaron Shurin

Paperback, 184 pagesFrom City Lights Publishers(June 1, 2008)ISBN: 978-0872864900 I discovered King of Shadows on a recent trip to San Francisco. Rooting through the shelves of City Lights Books, trying to limit the number of books I left the store with, I picked up Aaron Shurin’s collection of essays. Thankfully, King of Shadows seemed to […]