Speak, speak, speak!

Picked my dog up from the kennel this morning but somehow cannot break the habit of checking their webcams?

News!

Dear friends, it's too late for next year, but please don't use AI for statements of purpose for writing programs. (Or anything.) This includes for research about specific program. AI gets facts wrong. Those mistakes are glaring. Just look at the program's website directly.

As a former bookseller and loader of spin racks, this is a thrill!

Hell is empty, And all the devils are here.

Creative writing professor and lauded environmental writer David Gessner has been awarded the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professorship in Creative Writing. uncw.edu/news/academic-affairs/chssa/2024/10/gessner-named-kenan-distinguished-professor

I promise you, once you free yourself from the notion that other writers are your competition and start viewing them as your fellow weirdos who share similar special interests as you, your life in publishing will become so much easier.

Here's a thing you should know: I've been working with extremely adept writers, many of them positively dripping in prizes, for decades, and they don't always get punctuation right, and they don't always know what nonplussed means, and they can't always tell the difference between lead and led.

I’m so excited about this stellar review in Publisher’s Weekly for David Gessner’s latest, The Book of Flaco!

We are hiring for two Assistant/Associate Professor positions! Details and requirements are posted at jobs.uncw.edu/hr/postings/... (Fiction) and jobs.uncw.edu/hr/postings/... (Poetry). Please share with qualified and interested folks, or any appropriate group.

Despair is understandable but not sustainable.

Whenever I’m tempted to turn on cable news I watch an episode of Friends instead. Highly recommend.

Since 1987, my life has been the wait between Stephen McCauley novels. So excited this one has landed!

Saw a social media post saying, “Never use the word both!” It was so confident and convincing, I obediently combed through my current manuscript. Trust me. Sometimes you need both.

Oh Word. What did contractions ever do to you?

www.mamamia.com.au/reese-wither... Read The Christie Affair by @ninadegramont.bsky.social if you haven’t yet. It’s INCREDIBLE.

Form opinions. Don’t memorize them.

I think all artists can relate the the part where Frankenstein was like "I am going to make a man that is SO BEAUTIFUL" and then when he's finished he's like "I fucked up."

Most career authors are waiting for the email that will change their life. The big book deal, the movie deal, the award or bestselling status, congrats for going viral. For many, that email will never come. That's why you have to love story. You have to love the dancing more than the applause.

I love this and needed to hear it www.nytimes.com/2023/09/24/o...

1. Preschool teacher 2. Greenpeace canvasser 3. Mack truck cleaning crew

FYI: The Steinbeck Fellowship at San José State University is now open for applications. The fellowship is focused on supporting emerging early career writers. Recent Fellows include Gabriela Garcia, Meron Hadero, R.O. Kwon, Vanessa Hua, & the late Anthony Veasna So. www.sjsu.edu/steinbeck/aw...

Of the things we do that baffle our dogs, everyone hanging out in separate rooms is definitely #1.

Serbian edition. Those lips!

Good morning to everybody writing their syllabi

Might as well start with Isabelle!