Gabe: ”Mom, you should vote for Jill Stein.” Me: “Hmm?” Blank, benign smile masking my lack of Stein-knowledge. My son, the one who became a revolutionary this summer campaigned for Jill Stein this am, just at our house, but still. He told me she won’t get voted for, or taken seriously, but she’d do the [...]
July 12, 2012
I pulled my back out on my date with the A-Hole from Bridesmaids. You know, the Jon Hamm character? A perfect storm of vanity and self-consciousness converged on a bench, when I tried to make my bare legs (100 percent humidity had me in shorts) look their best. I alternated between crossing them (bad for [...]
May 25, 2012
I teach creative writing classes. I don’t teach grammar, spelling, or anything other than the creative in creative writing. That should make anyone who has ever edited or reviewed any of my writing relieved. First class, I assure everyone that making a living as a writer is rare, unicorn-rare. Some of them reconsider and a [...]
March 23, 2012
Guest Post by, Andrea Chisholm I grew up with a guardian over my refrigerator door. A picture of a mud covered snorting pig with the caption, “ A moment on your lips, forever on your hips.” For years the pig made me laugh. She was so cute and seemed so happy and playful I don’t think [...]
March 6, 2012
In Chardon, Ohio, T.J. Lane killed three classmates and injured two others on Febrary 27, 2012. I am always, and I’m sure I’m not alone, left wondering what provoked a child to take the steps to aquire a weapon and go berserk. A child doesn’t wake up one day, and out of the blue decide [...]
February 28, 2012
The other day my daughter and her friends were talking about what they would be when they grew up (surgeon, teacher, geneticist, dancer, photographer), where they would live (Boston, California, England) and how many children they’d have (three was the average). Part of growing up is imagining your future. The girls lined up their anticipated [...]
January 20, 2012
The other night my eldest yelled that his father and I suck at divorce. We had spent the afternoon at a dance recital and all the disparate pieces of my children’s extended family had converged. My ex’s family and my family. We had come together to celebrate. But tensions, awkward hugs and tightly smiled [...]
January 13, 2012
Shannon Drury of The Radical Housewife started a revolution. She wrote about the taboo of mental health – the skeleton in the feminist closet. For all the topics we tackle in our writing, for all the stones we turn, we leave our mental health struggles in the closet and under the rock. Why must we be [...]
December 14, 2011
Guest Post by Suzanne Hegland At the end of this fall semester, I asked my college writing students to digitally disconnect for 24 hours. I anticipated more than the usual groans of despair and litany of complaints. When I pitched the assignment to my own kids (aged 14 and 17) they reacted as if I [...]
October 3, 2011
In the past week, I realized that there are two subjects that are taboo among women. 1. Admitting that you have a hard time making friends. 2. Admitting that you’ve been dumped by a friend. Last week, my story “Why Do Moms Have a Hard Time Making Friends?” ran on the Huffington Post. We were [...]
"A thoughtful, provocative look at the not-so-pretty and the sometimes-out-there sides of parenthood."--Kristen Kemp, Baristakids.com
October 9, 2012
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