#5onFri: Five Things to Remove from Your TBR List

#5onFri: Five Things to Remove from Your TBR List

I love reading. It is my main hobby. I am always on the lookout for new authors and books to enjoy. But, I also get recommendations from friends, magazines and the Internet that I ignore. Because of my ever-growing TBR list, I have more books to read than I could ever get to. Lately, I’ve… Read more »

Draft Day, or Learning to Celebrate Your Manuscript

Draft Day, or Learning to Celebrate Your Manuscript

Last summer, on a hectic day before a month-long vacation, I went to the print shop for my final errand. I’d spent the past ten months working on the second draft of my latest novel—submitting chapters to my writing group, fixing the clunky narrative arc, and generally solidifying my sketchy first pass. Now the dogged… Read more »

Writer to Writer: William di Canzio and E.M. Forster

Writer to Writer: William di Canzio and E.M. Forster

When I was in college, I had the privilege of taking a course titled “Writing Back to Empire.” It was a study of postcolonial literature taught by the brilliant Professor Kathleen Renk, but the course title alone did more to describe that school of theory & criticism for our young minds than any other definition… Read more »

What MFAs Miss about the Editing Process

What MFAs Miss about the Editing Process

Browsing Twitter last week, I saw a tweet from a colleague of mine that read, “I’m curious, for writers who have published books, what was the editing process like? Especially curious about your first book. From whom and at what stage did you receive edits? To what degree? Does this question even make sense? Why… Read more »

The Book Nook: Maus by Art Spiegelman

The Book Nook: Maus by Art Spiegelman

If you read my last post, you’re probably wondering why I’m talking about Maus today. The answer is simple. Shortly after I shared my last post, in which I listed twelve books that I’ve owned for a long time and vowed to read in 2022, a school board in Tennessee banned Maus, the graphic novel… Read more »

#5onFri: Five Reasons to Start a Morning Writing Routine

#5onFri: Five Reasons to Start a Morning Writing Routine

Over the years I’ve struggled to establish a regular writing routine. I was constantly adjusting my schedule to accommodate school, internships, and a variety of part-time jobs. But even once I settled into a full-time job with a steady schedule, my writing routine still faltered. I tried to squeeze time into lunch breaks and scheduled… Read more »

Going from Preparing to Write to Actually Writing

Going from Preparing to Write to Actually Writing

Hey, y’all. I come before you today, standing at the precipice of possibility. The place where inertia becomes action. The moment where I engage in the act of sitting down and actually writing.  This winter, I invested in a masterclass program that walked me through the process of taking an idea, creating a high-level outline,… Read more »