Tag Archives: diversity

The Western Literary Canon, or the Curious Case of the Male Ego

Over the last two years, I’ve read Beowulf, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, More’s Utopia, Aristotle’s Poetics, and sections from The Epic of Gilgamesh. I’ve made a project of the canon because, at 33, I felt that if I want to be the kind of writer I aspire to be, I need to know what I’m workingContinue reading “The Western Literary Canon, or the Curious Case of the Male Ego”

Navigating Religious Differences: An Agnostic Visits Christian Family

I grew up in a religious community that fanatically converted neighbors, friends, and relatives. A Sunday wouldn’t go by without a reminder to pick up extra copies of The Book of Mormon and hand them out when God so moved us. But the world grows thick with difference, and to cull the diversity through conversionContinue reading “Navigating Religious Differences: An Agnostic Visits Christian Family”

Toastmasters Speech #3: The Challenges and Rewards of Teaching ESL

ESL stands for English as a Second Language, an academic discipline that aims to prepare students for a lifetime of effective communication in English. The field also goes by EFL (English as a Foreign Language), ELL (English Language Learning), and a whole barrage of other acronyms. It’s a large field with crucial importance. As ofContinue reading “Toastmasters Speech #3: The Challenges and Rewards of Teaching ESL”

Into the Gray

I have a problem. I love certainty. Labels. Categories. Classifications: fiction or nonfiction, ethical or unethical, subject or verb. As a child, I crammed a pine bookcase with glossy paperbacks of E.B White and Louisa May Alcott and Lloyd Alexander. I lined up the little volumes alphabetically and counted them when I needed reassurance that the world spun onContinue reading “Into the Gray”