monkeybusinessimages / iStock The final weeks of school are exciting but overwhelming. Before becoming a literacy consultant, I was a fourth-grade teacher; one of my goals was to ensure that students had time to reflect on their accomplishments and set goals for their academic as well as social and emotional learning (SEL) the following year. […]
I’ve been reading Elisa Gabbert’s essays and poems and criticism for years, but I only met her in person this past February at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Kansas City when I was on a panel with her partner, the writer John Cotter, on the topic of writing about your significant […]
There are three types of people in the world: Dog people, cat people, and those who like neither (psychopaths). I am, unquestionably, a dog person. I don’t entirely trust cats—they are far too self-assured and independent. I identify far more with the neediness and fierce loyalty of a dog. I have two border terriers—Alby, a […]
In the fall of 2013, my days and nights were wonderful and simple. I would wake in the morning to find Joan standing at the table, reading the paper, and as I edged into the kitchen, she would head to the stove to make me a one-egg omelet while I made sure her things were […]
The popular culture surrounding Jane Austen identifies her romantic happy endings as the key feature of her work, as John Atkinson parodies in figure 4 (below). And yet there has been a schism in the reading of those endings. Often the “Cozy Camp” of Austen reception has little to do with the novels themselves, and […]
It’s (un)officially summer, which means the living is easy, days and legs are stretching out languorously, and you’ve got sunshine hours to burn by the pool. (Unless, of course, you’re a parent.) But which books should fill your beach bag/backyard/pool house library this year? The internet, as always, has the an answer. So as usual […]
Photo by Giulia May on Unsplash I love it when a text centers the dynamics of conversation. In my own life, talking to others gets me out of my head, and introduces me to possibilities I would never have dreamed of alone. I think of a quote by the activist Valerie Kaur, which my local […]
