i remember the first time I wrote a sex scene. The scene involved one cousin stealing another cousin’s girlfriend, then I got into the nitty-gritty. When I’d finished writing it, I thought of my mother. It surprised me. But that’s where my head went. As I read over the scene, I thought, “What would the [...]
Author Archives: admin
I, for one, Welcome our new Computer-Poet Colleagues
April 9, 2013 – 2:57 pm
Tumbling around on the Internet recently, I discovered that in 1984, a book was published—The Policeman’s Beard is Half-Constructed—with the subtitle, “Computer Prose and Poetry by Racter.” “Racter” is a program that, according to the book, “can write original work without promptings from a human operator.” Given that it’s been twenty-eight years since that book [...]
A Guilty Conscience
March 21, 2013 – 7:12 pm
I can admit, I’m an incredibly slow writer, not a poetry machine able to pump out polished masterpieces or volumes of work. Many times the Kafka-bug hits, and I feel the urge to crumple up my work, adding to that towering mountain in the corner. Somewhere in that pile is a bit of my voice. [...]
Store-bought Essays Versus Homegrown Stories
February 21, 2013 – 8:04 pm
about a month ago, I had an epiphany: creative non-fiction may be slightly easier to write than fiction because the creative non-fiction process doesn’t include a creation stage. When we write fiction there’s no getting around the act of creation: we have to imagine people, places, or details we’ve never actually seen or experienced. This [...]
Literary Affairs with the Pool Boy
January 22, 2013 – 9:21 pm
around the holidays, I always find myself having secret affairs. They are not the kinds that end up on TV; they’re in my reading life. A friend once said that the Twilight series was her, “literary affair with the pool boy,” and to this day, I can’t shake the idea. Last year during Christmas, I [...]
The Places We’ll Go
November 20, 2012 – 11:11 am
as we pulled into Houston’s Theater District, I could feel the pace of my breathing trying to match my heartbeat and I dizzied; in a few moments, I would be watching Junot Diaz, a full week before he won the MacArthur Grant, read from his new short story collection, This is How You Lose Her. [...]
The Importance of Alchemy
October 23, 2012 – 12:17 pm
for a writer, the blur between real life and fiction sometimes becomes so hazy that, when critiquing a fellow writer’s story, I’ll recognize fragments of a conversation we had last week. Or I’ll notice a character with a penchant for collecting wrestling memorabilia, who reminds me a great deal of a mutual friend (dangerous work, [...]
When a Text Chooses Its Reader
September 30, 2012 – 11:00 am
a good friend recently shared with me his favorite book, Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn. I bumped it to the top of my pleasure-reading list. I have always been fascinated by the texts chosen by sporadic readers. My friend told me he has read the novel six times since he first discovered it. Though he works [...]
Worlds of Despair, Hope, and Weirdness
August 23, 2012 – 10:59 am
i want stories that I can live in for a short time, that are micro-worlds with their own rules, stories that make me cringe, or giggle, or maybe even choke up a bit. I want stories that shake my notion of what is normal or acceptable, both in literature and the world. I want to [...]
Poetic Healing
April 28, 2012 – 12:13 am
the middle school I work at has experienced more than its fair share of tragedy. In the two years that I have worked there, I’ve watched too many of my students be taken away in handcuffs and pulled from school by deportation orders. My students are confronted daily by gang violence, teen pregnancy, domestic abuse, [...]