Learning to See Beauty
By Jessica Eddings-Roeser
“It’s ugly. It’s hard. It’s weird,” someone called out every year. My students were not stupid, but they lacked the practice required to see. Continue Reading …
Archived entries for Uncategorized
Listening to a Stranger’s Story
By Allison Backous Troy
“Beautiful,” she says. “It was all beautiful. He is a genius, and those pirates stole everything he ever wrote.” Continue Reading …
Traditional New Year’s Food
By Dyana Herron
The magic key—and center of the meal—is black-eyed peas, which came to signify prosperity because of how they swell as they cook. Continue Reading …
Come Before Winter Part Two
By Vic Sizemore
When Joseph Campbell lectured on Dante’s life chart in the Convivio, it was in the context of his own charting of an archetypal life pattern. He developed it from his study of world mythologies. He calls it the hero’s journey. Continue Reading …
Come Before Winter Part One
By Vic Sizemore
Earlier this year Philip Roth told an interviewer from the French magazine Les InRocks, he has put down his pen forever. He told them he is finished writing, is turning his back on it entirely. Continue Reading …
The Christmas I Sat Next to a Sex Offender
By Jessica Eddings-Roeser
It’s not that I was afraid. My two brothers and I were grown—the youngest a six-foot tall Marine. Jim seemed weak and nervous most of the time, but my parents had realized that our hospitality was the most appropriate available.
Continue Reading …
Pennies for a Conquistador
By Jessica Eddings-Roeser
Each morning I rose early to drink coffee and write. Then I put on black eyeliner and three-inch heels—my own carefully calculated self-image designed to sensationally guide unruly high school students before moving on to happy hour. Continue Reading …
“Walk in My Shoes”: Chris Hoke
In seminary classes I’ve learned how to read the Bible narratives. In English literature classes I’ve learned how to see deeper into fictional narratives. But in this MFA program, doing spiritual writing, or creative nonfiction, I’m finally put to work learning how to interpret my own stories, from childhood to jailhouse. Continue Reading …
Taming the Busy Trap
By Allison Backous Troy
If busyness is an addiction, then it feeds some desire that has been twisted and bent by wrongdoing. And, like anything else, that desire needs rehabilitation, a house of healing to set it aright. Continue Reading …
Heading Home on the Back Roads
By Dyana Herron
Here’s the hard part. We aren’t taught how to go back. We’re taught to move forward, toward something better, as quickly and efficiently as we can. Continue Reading …