Teacher friends who know I don’t work weekends often ask about my plans when Friday rolls around. They are preparing themselves for a full day of hiking up Phelps or Algonquin, maybe a trip to…
Author: Lauren
When September Ends
Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends” was on the radio…again. Billie Joe Armstrong’s love song to the pain he’s endured since his father’s death from cancer is a perennial staple on independent radio…
The Weather
September means faculty meetings and preparation for students at my little boarding school in the Adirondacks. It also means I’m winding down my online teaching and tutoring for the summer. The other night, during my…
Drawing Inspiration
I’ve been on an ART BOOK kick this summer. I bought four books: one about sketching and three others about illustrating journals and collage work. I found them at a little shop along Lake Champlain,…
HOWL Story Slam: All in a Day’s Work
Adirondack Center for Writing’s first writing festival was indeed phenomenal. They capped off the event with a HOWL Story Slam on Saturday night. While I did not win (or even place), I got positive feedback…
Lit Mag Love: Eirinie Carson
I’ve written about how my perspective about grief shifted dramatically when I lost my baby. O. was sixteen, my younger boy, and watching him slip away was terrifying. Living without him is like having a…
Lit Mag Love: Eileen Vorbach Collins
This Lit Mag Love is all about writer Eileen Vorbach Collins. Damn, she’s prolific and so good. I came across her award-winning piece in Lunch Ticket. It reminded me of the bins I have in…
Lit Mag Love: Ben Sandman
I know some people don’t like epistolary pieces, but I almost always do. This is a series of emails from a novelist on a deadline who’s moved to a new apartment with his wife, a…
Lit Mag Love: Casey Mulligan Walsh
I found writer Casey Mulligan Walsh in the June 2022 issue of Split Lip, where she lives up to their mission: We’re a literary journal that’s totally bonkers-in-love with voice-driven writing, pop culture, and the…
One for the Murphys
Even though North Country School had to shut down a little early because of that thing that begins with “c” and ends with “d”, the sixth graders and I were able to read One for…