This week I read an essay by Christopher Noël titled “Keeping Open the Wounds of Possibility: The Marvelous, the Uncanny, and the Fantastic in Fiction.” It was an approachable, hands-on review of ideas from the Russian Formalists (especially defamiliarization) and Wolfgang Iser (especially the reader and author co-creating the text). But I liked it mostContinue reading “Depicting Abuse in Fiction”
Monthly Archives: June 2023
Book Picks: The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois
**Triggering Content (child abuse) Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award (yes, people, I’m still catching up on early pandemic booklists), Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ novel The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois has given us an immensely rich novel, one that hooked me with the depth and drama of a Black family spanningContinue reading “Book Picks: The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois”
Submission Spotlight: Gulf Coast
You’ve got until September, so dust off that piece that’s seen too many rejections and get to work. In three months, give it another go and consider Gulf Coast. Founded in 1986, this is the literary journal of the University of Houston’s creative writing program. Phillip Lopate and Donald Barthelme founded the journal, which hasContinue reading “Submission Spotlight: Gulf Coast”
The Courage of Writing Nuance
One of my textbooks this semester is Words Overflown by Stars, a collection of craft essays by Vermont College MFA faculty. This week I contemplated Ellen Lesser’s essay “The Girl I Was, the Woman I Have Become: Fiction’s Reminiscent Narrators.” Specifically, she reflects on “the point in time from which the story gets told” andContinue reading “The Courage of Writing Nuance”
The Trailer Park MFA 