Articles
How to find poetry in a crowded subway carA crowded subway car rarely looks poetic at first. It smells of winter coats, overheated metal, coffee, rain, and the tired air of people traveling home.…The Danger of Writing a Character Who Is Too Much Like YouWriting often begins with material close at hand: a difficult conversation, a former love, an old embarrassment, or a private wish that refuses to disappear.…What my favorite earrings say about my writing processI have always believed accessories keep small records of a life. A favorite ring remembers a difficult season. A scarf carries the mood of a particular city.…The art of turning a fight into a chapterA fight rarely arrives in a tidy narrative. It interrupts dinner, stains an ordinary Tuesday with sharp words, and leaves behind a silence that feels larger…Why I Keep a List of Things I’d Never Tell Anyone (Except My Journal)There is a page in my journal that has no elegant title. It is simply a growing list of thoughts, memories, impulses, and private observations I cannot imagine…On the Pain of Editing a Love LetterA love letter begins as an act of surrender. The words arrive with their sleeves rolled up, carrying memories, private jokes, old wounds, and the small details…The Night I Wrote a Short Story Instead of Sleeping Next to YouAt 2:17 in the morning, your breathing had settled into its familiar rhythm. The room was dark except for the pale rectangle of my phone, and the space between…How to Dress for a Literary Event When You’re Feeling InvisibleThere is a particular kind of nerves that arrives before a literary event. You may have a ticket, a favorite author on the program, and a carefully chosen…What a Vintage Typewriter Taught Me About Love and PatienceThe typewriter arrived with a chipped green shell, a stubborn ribbon, and keys that sounded louder than my thoughts. It was hardly elegant when I first found…The best way to ruin a perfectly good relationship: write about itThere is a particular kind of danger in being a writer in love. A tender moment rarely remains only a tender moment. It becomes a sentence, then a paragraph,…