People keep asking me: “Are you still writing?” My answer is not always enthusiastic, “yes,” but I wish it were. I have less time and most of my energy is reserved for my child. With some help from friends, I’m trying to accept the times I’m not writing. Time is...
The phone rings, my mother. The cancer has returned, stage four. My cellphone vibrates, a text from my sister. Have you talked to mom? After two lengthy and direct conversations, I convince my mom to consider other treatment facilities. Three days later she agrees. I...
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” No, Juliet, I disagree. The rolling R, the long, open O ready for surrender, the soft, sensual S. Names have power. In biblical myth, Adam’s first order of business included naming the flora, the fauna, and oh, yes, his...
This past weekend, New York Times best-selling author, Karen White and Minerva Rising contributor (Issue 2) Rona Simmons, shared their personal writing process with the members of the Atlanta Writers club. Rona started her talk by mentioning both Stephen King’s On...
Tomorrow it will all end and begin again. Tomorrow I will meet him in the city to sign the papers to end our marriage. Not long enough in my book of second chances when I hoped that this one would endure for the rest of my life. Hah, there will be no third chance. I...
Sure, I had the same jeans before pregnancy, but post-pregnancy, they somehow look like ‘mom jeans’. And I wore them to AWP in Seattle. Amidst the tattoos, long beards, and “ugly” sweaters (I’m pretty sure they were being worn with ironic quotations around them), I...
On this journey called a lifetime, courage goes hand-in-hand with fear. In my late-thirties, I was offered a career move to a major city . My son was in his pre-teens and testing the boundaries of our relationship. His dad, from whom I was divorced, lived nearby and...
Chelsey Clammer has been selected to receive the Owl of Minerva Award for 2014. Chelsey Clammer is currently enrolled in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA program. She is organizing a women’s writing retreat that will take place in a cabin in the middle...
Q. I really want to start sending some of my poetry out to literary journals to where I might find a home for my work. However, I’m not even really sure where to get started. Any suggestions? A. The wonderful thing is that you have an entire virtual world of literary...
When I was a kid there were two pretty extraordinary forces in my life: a book of poems called “A Light in The Attic,” and my older sister. By the time I was eight years old, I was a sullen member of the RIF (reading is fundamental) program. I segregated my worth from...
