Leisure Learning: Filled with Love Edition

Leisure Learning: Filled with Love Edition

This post is filled with love and packed with things that I either couldn’t wait to share with you or ones that you can utilize for learning over the next several years. If you would like to see similar content (3 short things, that are often educational but not limited to literature), sign up for… Read more »

Leisure Learning: September 2023: Spooky Edition

Leisure Learning: September 2023: Spooky Edition

Word nerds, thank you for joining me in what is my most favorite post of the year: Leisure Learning: Spooky Edition. This month, readers can peruse Mary Shelley’s (actual!!) Frankenstein notebooks, become unmoored by art inspired by Poe, and hopefully, add one of the best darkly academic podcasts to a playlist or two.  Since we… Read more »

Leisure Learning, August 2023: Keeping It Old School

Leisure Learning, August 2023: Keeping It Old School

Happy Sunday, Leisure Learners!! While school is literally always open here at DIY MFA, September has a special feel for passionate learners like ourselves. That sparkle filled with notebooks and pens and elevated thoughts enters the ether as we put aside the beachy reads and fall in love once again with our most substantial literary… Read more »

July 2023 Leisure Learning: Word Nerd Tourism!

July 2023 Leisure Learning: Word Nerd Tourism!

Hello and happy almost-August! The July 2023 Leisure Learning column is all about the literal places that literature can transport one’s self to. Get in touch with your inner Transcendentalist, talk with the kids about their summer reading, go on a few virtual tours that bring epic word nerd sites to you, and have a… Read more »

June 2023 Leisure Learning: Summer Reading, All Grown Up

June 2023 Leisure Learning: Summer Reading, All Grown Up

Word nerds, please grab a mimosa and join me as I raise a glass to that super special time of year: (to be read with your best Oprah impression)***SUMMER READING SEASON!!***  Like ghost stories in October, summer reading carries with it the indulgence of being simply delightful. It’s a time to break free of books related only… Read more »

May 2023 Leisure Learning: Way, Way Back in the Day

May 2023 Leisure Learning: Way, Way Back in the Day

Greetings and felicitations, fellow nerds of the word! The May 2023 Leisure Learning column focuses on literary contributions somehow related to the past. Gain insight into William Blake’s process for resurrecting the illuminated manuscript, meet some lesser-known family members chronically overshadowed by their famous relations, and see how Walt Disney’s soldiering days influenced early Disney… Read more »

Reading as a Creative Act

Reading as a Creative Act

Writers, I’d like to talk about reading. Growing up, it was the form of entertainment universally endorsed by adults. Kids could watch too much TV or spend too many hours playing video games, but rarely did one get in trouble for reading too many books. (Although I’m sure some of you reading this have some… Read more »

April 2023 Leisure Learning: Friends, Foes, & Infamy

April 2023 Leisure Learning: Friends, Foes, & Infamy

Merry April, all! I hope that by the time you read this, you have gotten a chance to experience the luxury of reading outside. (Made even more luxurious, at times, through the magic of antihistamines.) This month’s column explores the spectrum of friends, enemies, frenemies, and simply odd relationships found within literature, both on and… Read more »

Leisure Learning, March 2023: Poetry Galore

Leisure Learning, March 2023: Poetry Galore

Greetings, fellow word nerds! As we head into April (aka National Poetry Month), it only makes sense that this month’s Leisure Learning column should focus on the short form of the written word. In a world where words can easily become blather, poetry offers a magnificent opportunity to return to the essence of our human… Read more »

Leisure Learning: Almost Spring!

Leisure Learning: Almost Spring!

Hello, word nerds! Welcome to the Almost Spring edition of Leisure Learning. This month’s melange of experiences brings you the nostalgia of Beatrix Potter, the convoluted craziness of Ian Fleming’s role in British naval service, The Oscars (for books!) and a wealth of Irish tales, recorded by school children in their 1930s-era copybooks. Whatever your… Read more »