Immigration is an emotional topic that can turn the friendliest of conversations into a fierce debate. People have wide-ranging views that have been shaped by their own experiences, the opinions of friends, and the news programs they watch. Writing about the immigrant experience requires a lot of nuance and attention to detail. Seven years ago,… Read more »
As an author of three published novels and over thirty short stories, several of them award-winners, I have acquired a sense of how to approach a writing project and finish it. I taught myself about writing fiction by learning from mistakes and the way I erred in my early years as a writer. I’m still… Read more »
Growing up, I was a shy kid who switched schools every year. Books became a safe haven for me. A place I could escape, where who I was and what I wanted most could be lived out through hopping into the lives of characters. It was a place where people like me could form friendships… Read more »
In June 2016, I was at a crossroads. I felt behind everyone I knew in terms of my career and life experience. I was sick with money worries, constantly anxious, and when I would glance ruefully at the dust on my writing desk, the specter of “real adult life” sounded a lot like my father…. Read more »
On an old Curly Girl greeting card taped above my desk, a woman’s red-fingernailed hand wraps around a vintage microphone. Artist Leigh Standley’s caption sprawls above the illustration: “Find Your Voice.” Find. Your. Voice. Weaned on this advice, we fiction writers know that when an otherwise well-built narrative lies comatose on the page, only a… Read more »
I was first introduced to Salman Rushdie in a college literature class where we read Midnight’s Children. His novels usually combine historical fiction and magical realism to explore heavy personal, political, and cultural themes. While Rushdie’s writing is not an easy read, he’s become one of my favorite writers. After reading his memoir, Joseph Anton,… Read more »
The clinical definition of intergenerational trauma, also sometimes referred to as multigenerational trauma, is trauma that is “passed down from the generation that experienced the trauma to subsequent generations.” These traumas exist in many forms—they are the aftermaths of war, sexual and physical abuse, drug abuse, and suicides. Other family traumas, such as family secrets,… Read more »
Do you rebel against yourself? Me too. Sometimes I have to trick myself. I’ll decide to do something that seems so good for me. I’ll purchase books and watch webinars and do the research and decide, That’s it! That’s the thing that will change my life for the better! Then, as I embark upon the… Read more »
My mission of self-discovery began when I started documenting my journey through breast cancer. But it did not end there. The more I wrote, the more I learned. I initially wanted to know why my breast cancer diagnosis set off such a wave of sorrow inside me. Why was my past trauma fast and furiously… Read more »
Certain words keep writers up at night. They live in the darkest corners of the dictionary and carry with them anxiety and dread. For me, one is particularly ominous. Quitter. Let’s be honest. Writing is swimming upstream with a thousand pounds of hope, expectations, and manuscripts strapped firmly to your back. Publishing is a subjective… Read more »
