My Writerly Life

  • JOE TURNER CLASSIC

    Sometimes it is easy to forget that literary fiction is not limited to a novel, but played out on the theatrical stage–but we get a jarring reminder when we sit three rows back from a Roscoe Lee Browne performance in August Wilson’s masterpiece, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” It was way back in 1989, when… Read more

  • WORLD LITERATURE

    Sometimes I find myself struggling to expand my reading habits to include foreign authors. Because I am from an English-speaking nation, I suppose, my reading habits tend toward American, Irish, and British authors, but even historical records show a slant toward English literature. Shakespeare dominated the 16th Century; Milton the 17th; Samuel Johnson (England) and… Read more

  • HARDING – AUTHOR OR DRUMMER?

    Back in the early 2000s, Paul Harding left the world of music, got an MFA from the Iowa writers’ Workshop, and wrote his first novel—Tinkers—about an itinerant Maine peddler in the 1800s. The book won the 2010 Pulitzer and launched Harding’s career as a university Prof, adding one more facet to his life.  If you… Read more

  • MELANCHOLY VERSE

    To the Greeks, melancholia was one of the four humors to be avoided—a black bile that brought on an unhealthy state of sadness, fear, mania; a condition that was negative and to be avoided. Over time, humans came to realize that there were appropriate times to be melancholy; to reflect; to grieve. I tend toward… Read more