Unpacking The Politics of Class Size in Higher Education

July 6, 2023

Unpacking The Politics of Class Size in Higher Education I taught five classes in Spring 2023, with a combined enrollment of one-hundred-ten students. If...

2022 Roundup

January 25, 2023

Dear Friends, It’s January 23, 2023, the day before I go back to teaching after my sabbatical. I’m sitting here in front of my computer, my usual office mess...

Being A Woman Is Not A Punishment: What’s At Stake For Men In The Policing Of Women’s Bodies

December 4, 2022

I initially wanted to make this issue about what’s at stake for men in the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade. Then, in September, women in Iran began...

A Gratitude In Me That I Did Not Fully Appreciate At The Time

August 2, 2022

Not this one obviously, but some images in this post are NSFW. I was scrolling through my photos the other day, looking for I-don’t-remember-what, when the...

Three Poems Of Mine That Should Never Have Become As Relevant As They Are Now

June 16, 2022

Three Poems Of Mine That Should Never Have Become As Relevant As They Are Now Sometimes you publish a poem in response to the current moment, whatever that...

How do you decide if something should be a poem or an essay?

June 2, 2022

When I wrote a couple of newsletters ago about the writers who influenced me early on in terms of craft, I tried to focus on those aspects of making a poem...

Publication News and Some Thoughts on Patience and Process

April 10, 2022

Dear Friends, I am very excited to share with you that an essay it took me nearly thirty years to write, “The First Time I Told Someone,”was published...

What Writers Have Influenced Your Work? Part 1

March 24, 2022

The John Wisniewski interview continued: What Writers Have Influenced Your Work? I don't think I've read an interview with a writer where the interviewer did...

Standing With Ukraine Also Means Paying Attention To Its Larger Context

February 28, 2022

Dear Friends, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine casts its long shadow over everything I do these days, even the small, mundane moments, like washing the...

When Did You Start Writing?

January 15, 2022

In March of 2020, just before the pandemic shutdown, I received from John Wisniewski the first two of the seven or eight questions that would comprise the...

Hello, Yeah, It's Been A While

January 1, 2022

Dear Friend, This is only the third newsletter I've sent out this year, and I confess I feel a little presumptuous sending it. We're all busy, so many of us...

I'll be reading in Bright Hill's Word Thursday Series on June 10

June 5, 2021

Dear Friends, I hope June finds you and your loved ones healthy and safe and happy that we are inching back to normal life. It’s been a while since I’ve...

The Music I'd Like To Put Back In My Life

February 5, 2021

Dear Friends, Those are my hands over the keys at the grand piano that stood in the parlor of the dorm I lived in when I attended Edinburgh University in the...

The Way Academia Is Supposed To Work

December 21, 2020

Dear Friends, I can't believe I'm writing this at 3:30 AM. I woke up about a half hour ago from a very disturbing dream, in which the character with whom I...

I have been (once again) thinking about antisemitism...

October 30, 2020

Dear Friends, I have some news I’d like to tell you about regarding my recent publications and upcoming events, but first I want to share with you something...

Why I'm Participating in Tupelo Press' 30/30 Fundraiser

October 1, 2020

Dear Friends, As I told you in my last email, I will be participating this month in Tupelo Press’ 30/30 Fundraiser, which is, basically, the small press...

I know I haven't written in a while

September 17, 2020

Dear Friends, Not even two full months after I last wrote you in January, the pandemic shutdown began, upending our lives in ways both large and small. One...