Some weeks writing comes easy. Like a gift a context or idea appears and you run to the computer, journal, grocery receipt and draft out a poem quickly before it...
At the end of the summer, when the New Hampshire sky was a bright blue, I started my MFA program in creative nonfiction. When preparing for this new adventure in...
Maybe it’s because it’s autumn now—it’s darker out and the neighbors' Halloween decorations are up and all the tourists have gone home so the seacoast is hushed—but I’m thinking about...
This past weekend, I was going to be super productive. I was going to revise an old story, draft the first few pages of a new one, write this blog...
“His name is Eggplant,” said John as we examined his dying fish inside the large aquarium in the middle of his living room. This was before we started dry humping...
I work best on a deadline. When I’m feeling charitable, I tell myself it’s the journalist in me. Years of working under pressure, all those late nights in the newsroom....
In my poetry form and technique class we were discussing the lines that changed us, that made us into writers. This conversation stemmed from reading Light the Dark edited by Joe...
"What are you going to do with your MFA?" We've all heard this question before. Most people with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in creative writing use their degree...
Sometimes, the most difficult part of writing is simply getting yourself to write. It’s easy to get distracted or overwhelmed by “real life,” to tell yourself that you’ll start working...
Two of Barnstorm’s poetry readers are graduating from the MFA program this spring; before they head out, Milo and Morgan took the time to share their thoughts on the evolution...
At my first AWP conference, I attended a panel titled “Unrealism: The True Art of Fantastic Fiction,” and I listened reverently as Carmen Maria Machado discussed the origin of her...
En route to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, I ran into a writer at the airport who I knew from my past life as a newspaper reporter....