We lost Janet Smith today, our UIC faculty union president. She’d been fighting cancer for a long time; I don’t know the specifics, but I’m guessing it finally got her. Janet showed up, though, through chemo and illness and all the rest of it. She showed up for all of us, and spoke a hell …
UIC has just let us know that we’re going to do the first two weeks of spring semester classes online, given the rise of Omicron, what’s known as an adaptive pause. I’m glad they’re letting us know now, rather than just before the semester starts; it’ll let me plan better for two weeks of fully …
Editing to clarify — read the actual article, not just the clickbait headline. The point they’re making doesn’t apply to all MA programs, or even all MFA programs. There are good programs that offer a decent return on investment of time / money for the average student. But there are a vast number of very …
I admit, I’m feeling a little blue right now — I’ve just had to cancel the SLF’s Portolan Writing Project Kickstarter, after putting a tremendous amount of time and effort into promoting it over the last month. In the last hour, we’d gotten up to almost $5200 in pledges, with 95 backers, but we’d set …
We did break $5K last night, and more than 90 supporters — thanks so much, folks! https://www.kickstarter.com/…/the-slfs-portolan-writing… Facebook is still throttling my ability to tag in my friends so they can actually SEE these posts, which is more than frustrating. At this point, with five hours left in the fundraiser, I think we’re probably looking …
Folks, it’s Giving Tuesday, and also the last day of my non-profit Kickstarter. I’ve been asking all month for people to like / comment / share my posts about the Portolan Project, but today, I’m asking you to contribute. https://www.kickstarter.com/…/the-slfs-portolan-writing… This is the project of my heart — bringing free writing lessons to the world, …
Last in-person teaching day of the semester, and I think it’s indicative of my burned-out state (and that of everyone around me, I suspect) that I sewed this matching mask for my top, and then LEFT IT ON THE KITCHEN ISLAND. Sigh. Oh well. This is another long salwar top that I cut the bottom …
Getting ready for today’s teaching, a student just sent me this note: “Just finished Dazzle of Day… it was incredible. Also made clear a lot of stuff I was doing wrong with my latest story. Thanks for the recommendation!” I do love this job.
Have you ever thought, “That’s a great story idea, I should write it down?” But then you get stuck, because it seems too hard to take the next steps. You don’t have time or money to enroll in an MFA, there aren’t any good writing classes in your area, maybe imposter syndrome has kicked in …
Good morning, folks! Let me tell you about the Portolan Project, our new effort to provide FREE creative writing and lit classes…to the world! You’re going to see me making a big push the next few days because we’re getting towards the tail end of our SLF Kickstarter, and we’re only about 1/4 funded ($3080 …
