On Writing; Or, What I Say in the Mirror on Days that are Heavy & Burdensome

On Writing; Or, What I Say in the Mirror on Days that are Heavy & Burdensome

Cristo Redentor

by Dana Byerwalter One of the major draws of the MFA of the Americas is that you travel abroad during your June residency. When I learned the 2018 destination would be Rio de Janeiro, I was excited for all the residency entailed: lectures from visiting writers, in-person workshops, museum visits to take in the local …

Alter the Process. Break the Rules.

By Carley Fockler I’ve always been the kind of writer who stares at a word document until everything blurs and my mind wanders. There’s something about it that blank space I find intimidating. I adjust the margins, the font size, and the spacing just to give myself the illusion of productivity. It distracts from my …

Motherfucker: A Lesson in Ethics

. . . He was the victim of an accidental discharge, uncontrolled carelessness with unconscionable consequences . . .

Diverse Systems of Throb: AWP 2017 in Washington DC

". . . Nafisi went on to speak for more than an hour, apologizing over and over again for her digressions and off-topic assays that were very clearly borne of a tremendous passion."

Functional Experimentality: Family Meal at the MFA of the Americas

There was something ineffably poetic about that silence . . .

Best Reads of 2016: “Reading Lolita in Tehran”

I cannot power through this book, like so many others before, for one simple reason: it powers through me.

Writing In Great Places: Poetry At The Dali

Jared Alan Smith I once had a conversation with a Frenchman I’d just quit working for about the nature of American medicine: he said that each type of doctor has become so specialized that it is near impossible to find a physician to help with a variety of ills. When he asked me if I …

Don’t Let Your Self Get in the Way: Mindfulness, Multiculturalism & the Creative Process

Lucianna Chixaro Ramos About two years ago I was lucky enough to make a wrong turn. While looking for a grocery store less crowded than the one near my apartment, I drove down the wrong two lane road in the south part of Orlando. The suburban landscape clogged with strip malls quickly gave way to …