Category Archives: economics
The Shame I Feel
I’m stupid. I’m inadequate. I am a failure. This is what I grew up believing about myself, and there was no place that proved these points more often, more relentlessly, and more consistently than school. All day long, five days … Continue reading
Making Art in the Age of Trump
Writing takes spaciousness. It requires managing time and psychic space. It requires holding part of yourself away from things: reality, jobs, bills, money, even marriage and partnership and family. It requires keeping a large part of your heart and mind … Continue reading
Walls, Doors and Windows
I am thinking about walls, doors and windows, and the rooms that many writers feel they are kept out of. The feeling is real. I have a lot of experience with walls, doors and windows. Besides the fact that I … Continue reading
Dear Sir
Dear Sir, I love you, and now you are gone, and I didn’t tell you I love you before you disappeared. That’s because when you were here, I did not love you. In fact, you were always annoying to me, … Continue reading
Resisting the Bullshit
When they say upgrade, go outside and chop some wood. When they say new and improved, tell them you like the old ways better. When they say get fit and fabulous, tell them you’re misfit and fabulous. When they say … Continue reading
Defining Self
Because I had difficulty absorbing the information given in school, and because I failed tests, I believed that I was stupid. Because I believed that I was stupid, I believed that I was inferior. Because I believed I was inferior, … Continue reading
The Path
I am often asked how I got to where I am now. I honestly don’t know how to answer this question. I didn’t take a conventional route. I didn’t go to college. I didn’t enter an MFA program. I’m not … Continue reading
Proof of Seriousness?
For years I wrote while holding down some sort of job that had nothing to do with writing. The jobs were not glamorous. House cleaning, bartending, carpentry, costumer, clerk in a grocery store, cocktail waitress, house cleaner again, and again, … Continue reading
The Market
People often ask me how to read the market. What should they do? What’s the next new trend? How did I know to write what I wrote when I wrote it? Look at me, I want to say. Do I … Continue reading
Money, Spaciousness, Deadlines and Bathtubs
For a long time before I had a writing life, I dreamed of one. I dreamed of living by the ocean in a little cottage, taking long walks, reading, eating good food, relaxing, breathing deeply. Or else I dreamed of … Continue reading