Creative Nonfiction tips from your honorary English Professor — Imagine that we are sitting in a classroom on a crisp autumn day. There are twelve of us sitting at desks that are arranged in a circle. There’s natural light pouring in through large glass windows. You’ve come to learn how to craft creative nonfiction and personal essays. I sit…

Josh Ritter risked it with his novel The Great Glorious Goddamn Of It All and apologized to his mom — Some people — Hogan Torah — complain my writing is too tangential. I’ll admit a good tangent can be hard to come by and I’m unsure how many I produce. It’s hard to deter stubborn creatives. I find favorite artists and art through something similar to tangents, like so: First…

An exercise in delaying soon and trying to coax soon to come sooner — My head feels fuller than an overtopped baked potato, cheese ooey gooey-ing over the plate and onto your grandma’s stark white doilies. And it’s pretty much what’s been stopping me from writing or publishing new stuff lately. When the cork feels in danger of surprise popping I go into hermit…

Poem from the archives — One San Franciso Sunset when I had come freshly packaged at age 13 to meet my dad really meet him make a distant past that became faint turquoise memories drowning in serene, tranquil seas the sun’s bubblegum ray bounced off the ridge of a soggy potato chip floating in the salty sea…

Channeling Huntress S Thompson — It can’t be too hard to write a 100 thing Listicle. <quicksand and quagmire envelop her> “Hey let me out!” “Don’t I get to bring books?” Books I’ve read recently: Would You Rather?; Born A Crime; Little Paris Bookshop; Quiet is in progress But not right now. Smoosh. Squish. Squoosh…

When primary school sent me to interview a neighbor, I got to learn about the “olden” days — Just saying “hoecake” sounds derogatory, like I’m calling out my cake for hoing around, which I would never do. I thought my research would reveal a risque story of yesteryear. Nope. Even though they’re spelled differently, hoecake manages to have a sultry (?) slutty (?) sound to it. Moving on. The Interview

“I always want my work to be as accessible as possible no matter who the audience is.” — This is a special interview because Dr. Steven E. Brown is my dad. He’s also famous in the field of Disability Culture. The doctorate comes from his Ph.D. in History. He has written numerous papers, books, and poems. He guest speaks at fancy-schmancy disability training events. …