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Category Archives: Graduate School

Business time

  Some things: The short story I mentioned in the previous blog post was “Ghosting” and it’s up on the publications page for its appearance in Non-Binary Review. My flash story “Feogin” placed in the Syntax and Salt autumn flash fiction contest. It will be published on 10/30 and I’ll update the link when that […]

Do MFA programs break writers?

Awhile ago, I tweeted All writer’s retreats/workshops talk about loving writing. I think I fit in better with the people who HATE writing. Where are those people? A writer friend who is having much more success in being productive than I am posited that the one thing she’s noticed about friends in MFA programs is […]

Words about words

Last week, the issue #12 of the wonderful Drunken Boat dropped. It includes a story of mine. You should go read it! It’s free! Another thing that happened last week: I’ve been toying with the idea of taking a PhD level writing workshop with George Makana Clark in Milwaukee. Toying, as in, I was all […]

The final chapter of the quest for the Master’s Degree

I was already late for my thesis defense when I got to the building, out of breath from the run across campus from the overfull parking garage. I caught the elevator but it went down to the basement and then, after I said “You’ve got to be fucking KIDDING ME!” under my breath but totally […]

show me how you do that thing

On Tuesday, I will be spending the entire day in Milwaukee. In the morning, I will be facing my master’s oral examination, whereby Dr. Clark, Professor Liam Callanan and my current professor Dr. Gwynne Kennedy will be asking me questions and I will in theory be answering them with some kind of intelligent combination of […]

the camel’s back

Over the weekend, I worked on my master’s project and am happy to report that I have now finished 55 pages out of 70 minimum required for the project. The problem is, despite evidence to the contrary on this here rambling diary, my fiction is actually pretty economical with the language. Usually, that’s preferred, but […]

Ms. Serious Artiste, etc, etc

Last weekend, I participated in a reading for the creative writing program at my school. I was super nervous, but two double vodka plus red juice in the hotel bar before we left helped a great deal, enough to make me a little silly for the ride over (we all piled into the inlaws’ van […]

a circle instead of a stick

My current class is another lit class, only this one is about women writers. I wasn’t entirely stoked about having a women writers class, but then I looked at it like this: like it or not, I am a woman writer. I’m not being bitchy or anything, but on some level, I object to the […]

What really happens at writing retreats

My Vegas writing retreat was, well, Vegas. I got about halfway through the story I’m working on, which is awesome, and I would have probably finished it if, er, we hadn’t been in Vegas and only a few very long Vegas blocks from the single hottest dance club in all the land, complete with male […]

Writers are weird

School started last month and this semester I am taking a writing workshop. I just couldn’t handle the idea of taking another lit class (I only need one more lit requirement and then I have completed the credit requirements for my Masters) after the disaster of last semester’s Scifi class and also, my creative thesis […]