Monthly Archive:: July 2010
Staying In, Staying Put
Guest post by Aimee Nezhukumatathil Greetings from the land of popsicles and frozen blueberries! It is blueberry time here in Western NY. My family just returned from our local organic farm (actually called “Blueberry Hill,” how cute is that?) and I have been searching for new recipes to
Lawless Discipline and Other Western Charms
Guest post by Carol Keeley Before caravanning West with a couple of movers–who drove out from the mountains, arrived ripely hung-over, looked at all the boxes of books and 78s, then called local movers to off-load the gig–we lived half a block from a drive-through liquor store. Weeks earlier,
Who Is Your Writing Family?
Guest post by Aimee Nezhukumatathil Reader, I have survived a full two weeks of having a newborn at home. I suppose “survive” is a bit melodramatic for how fast and joy-filled it actually was and in spite of my doubts of all the reassurances from my friends and family
Literary Conversations
Guest post by Carol Keeley It began, like most obsessions, in a used bookstore on Broadway. Late one afternoon, I was listlessly foraging for food and stopped to browse pre-loved books in my old Chicago neighborhood. I venture to say that most people most of the time experience the
Rejections for Children
Guest post by Bridget Lowe When I was nine years old I received, as unceremoniously as I’d come to expect later in life, my very first rejection: The magazine was Highlights for Children, the one you see in the waiting room of every dentist and pediatrician, stacked next to
What Is Your Ideal Space to Create?
Guest post by Aimee Nezhukumatathil This is the first year since I started teaching at SUNY-Fredonia–nine years ago now–that I didn’t leave my house to go on a writing retreat (awarded or self-imposed). I have an office at home painted my favorite shade of robin’s-egg blue with red accents
Tigerella Needs a Home
Guest post by Carol Keeley In an email exchange with David Gates, Jonathan Lethem writes: Hey, David. As I was saying to my 2,472 friends the other day, these certainly are strange times in the history of the boundary between the human persons and the written words. He
Writing Underwater: Notes from a Mermaid/Mer-mom
This week, we welcome our new Get Behind the Plough blogger, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, who contributed poetry to the Winter 2008-9 Ploughshares and is the author of two poetry collections published by Tupelo Press, At the Drive-In Volcano (2007) and Miracle Fruit (2003). Aimee, blogging on Mondays through August, replaces
Solvitur Ambulando
Guest post by Carol Keeley Solvitur ambulando–a phrase that dates to Diogenes: “it is solved by walking.” If writers had a flag, this could be its inscription. Feeling stuck or distracted? Stressed, uninspired, rageful, confused? Go for a walk. For more than a quarter-century, Schopenhauer kept the same daily