I'm teaching two courses this summer, both good. In my creative nonfiction writing class, they are producing good work and writing along with them forced me to start on a memoir book project. That won't show up here, becasue it is realy a book, not the episodic thing that would chunk out into column-like chapters. … Continue reading Advice to an advocacy student writer
My Mother’s Kitchen: A Prompt
The storybook ranch’s kitchen in 1963. Note the red step stool so that I could reach the stovetop to make my own grilled cheese sandwich. I drove to the old neighborhood in northeast Wichita the other day to see how it looks now. It is larger, of course. The wheat fields behind my street long … Continue reading My Mother’s Kitchen: A Prompt
In-Text Citation and Argument
I know this doesn't sound very exciting, but I am reading some stellar papers from my Gender Issues in Language and Literature class and love the ideas, yet with some papers, mourn that the execution of those ideas are hampered by incorrect or overly-minimal in-text citation. So this is for them and all the other … Continue reading In-Text Citation and Argument
About Independent Writing
This is an end of semester overview I give my Wiriting I students. They are about to enter the world of independent writing, and there are some common things to keep an eye on as they write for other classes or in the workplace. An end-of semester look at the most common areas students work … Continue reading About Independent Writing
The weight of grading
I always do the PAD Challenge, but I don’t always finish. It’s hard to predict what will make me stop. I completed the challenge the year that should have been the hardest, the April my mom had a heart attack and I spent much of that month at her side. I don’t know how I … Continue reading The weight of grading
PAD Day 12
The challenge for today was a spiritual poem.
PAD Day 11
The Nature of Baking Baking is science and art. We know that. Recipes now give grams instead of cups and I should be okay with that, but I also know that recipes lie. Aunt Jenny doesn't tell how she used whole milk just like I don't tell that I use coconut milk. I mean to, … Continue reading PAD Day 11
PAD Day 10
The prompt absolutely did not work for me today, and I don't know why. I'm running out of time to figure it out though, so I went to my iPad and used Adobe Fresco to start an instapoem instead.
PAD Day 9
The task today is to write an ekphrastic poem. The trick with that is to do one of two extremes. One is to go with something like a photograph that no one knows and let that image frame the poem. The other extreme is to pick a painting that is extremely well known, so much … Continue reading PAD Day 9
PAD Day 8
A future poem. Very rough, but something, On Hearing the Song "In the Year 2525' in 2020 In the year 1969 we thought our short skirts would save us. Make love not war was the cry and a little magazine called Ms. did not exist until 1970, but the signs were there. Vietnam was our … Continue reading PAD Day 8
