A Novel I’m Writing
It was a beach town in February. What can I say? There was nothing to do but get out of town. The General Store was out of stock on beach …
The Fiction Writer Is Asked To Speak About Why She Is A Fiction Writer At The Middle School Where Her Former College Roommate Teaches
I write because I believe language is holy, and I think fiction and poetry are the most divine of the sacraments. This is because all language is fictive, no matter …
Happily Ever After
A few minutes before the oven timer went off, she lost it. She threw the Waterford vase his mother had sent for their anniversary at him. She missed his head …
The Sleeping Woman
The first time Holly tried to kill herself, when she was seventeen, her mom and Bill picked her up from the hospital in Atlanta and took her to the mountain …
Homeowner’s Insurance
Standing on their front lawn in the middle of the night, their house on fire, he was in pajama pants, t-shirt, and slippers; she was in sweatpants and a tank …
Accounting For Loss
On the drive to the mountain house to dig a grave for my parents’ Black Labrador Retriever, my father, the math teacher, tells stories. Stories about the different dogs he’s …
Candidates for the Great American Novel
I am no critic – just a concerned citizen. However, as Mr. Augie March states so eloquently at the end of his chronicle: I may well be a flop at …
The Sound of Running Water
In the men’s room of the public library, a man is standing at the sink furthest from the door. He seems to be avoiding his image in the mirror. Head …
Jack Gilbert
Once, after a period of extended meditation, I went out to the front porch with Jack Gilbert’s collection The Great Fires – maybe a year or two after I’d first …
The President Doesn’t Need Intelligence
What’s so great about intelligence and listening to people? His IQ is the biggest, what would he need with that? And daily! He’s a smart guy. Why would such a …