Last night somewhere dark hung with picturesMy grandfather was walking behind me whenHe fellBecause he had died some months before; I turned around to see:Frightful wounds were opening on his bodyI reached for his hand to help him upHe extended the good hand The good hand that had always worked for twoWhose grip, as he…
Tag: self-care
Learning to Take up Space
Pride started as a riot. And since then it’s been somewhere between a protest and a party. What if this year, for me, Pride Month is about figuring out how to take up space and find my seat at the table? In other words, about finding my Pride? These days, I take up space mainly…
An Archaic Concept of Me: Shoulder Energy
Here we are, about to read the sixth delivery of ‘An Archaic Concept of Me’.For those who would like to begin at the beginning, Delivery 1 can be found here.In that initiating delivery we found Aleena and Stuart enjoying a new morning of privilege, waking for breakfast in bed, with water views, figs and all….
Bullied by my Teachers
It was weird. Rick, my former PhD advisor and an established scholar, quit academia and was running a shop. I forget what he sold. He welcomed me with open arms, chatted with me briefly, and walked away. He had another customer to serve. Just as I turned around, my eyes met with Henrietta, my college…
Disability and Queerness: Celebrate the Whole Person
Talking through Issues with my Writing Community I rely on my writing community a lot. For inspiration. Support. Feedback. They’re an important part of my life, and not just as a writer. So recently, when I was talking to Adam (mentor, 2 Rules of Writing co-founder, good friend) I mentioned that I’d been having a…
My PhD Advisor (A Good Teacher is Hard to Find: 3)
Page is hard to write about. Despite working with her for over 4 years, she remains a mystery to me. She was my PhD supervisor, and we had a bumpy start. To be fair, I was partly responsible for that bumpy start because I didn’t know what I was getting into when I applied to do…
“The Good Parts”: The Real Sex Ed
There has been a lot of discussion of limiting children’s access to sex ed. But that may not be possible. Sex ed is all around us. The most you can limit is your engagement with their education. And why would you want to limit that? My First Sex Ed Classroom: A Slumber Party In first…
“Where do you Get your Ideas?”
If you listen to interviews of authors, one of the questions you’ll hear most often is: “Where do you get your ideas?” I hear a plaintive note in this question. It is asked so often. Sometimes with reference to a specific work or series (like with George R. R. Martin and A Song of Ice…
Solitude and Music: The Silence Between the Notes
“Couldn’t put my phone downScrolling patientlyIt’s all the same to meJust faces on a screen, yeah I’m trying to realizeIt’s alright to not be fine on your own” (comethru – Jeremy Zucker) Alone | Together Recently, my musician friend Jabin Law starts a new music project “Alone Together”. Alone Together is a follow-up project of…
“Save the Cat”: Anti-Abortion Virtue Signalers
How do fringe interests like abortion and homophobia take center stage at a time when we have bigger issues? (N. B. We always have bigger issues. So we might as well ask how anti-choice and anti-queer people ever take center-stage.) The answer actually has something to do with how to be a good writer. It…