Celia Lisset Alvarez's Blog, page 5
January 29, 2012
Cooking with Celia: Orzo-Stuffed Tomatoes
Given the popularity of my Black-Eyed Peas & Quinoa Salad post and my general lack of inspiration this week having to do with writing matters, I've decided a late-weekend "Cooking with Celia" post is better than no post at all. Ergo, I present to you my Orzo-Stuffed Tomatoes. I make these with veggie chicken strips and vegan mayo, but I assume it would work as well with a dead animal and something made out of an embryo. Any stuffed tomato recipe is only as good as the tomatoes, of course, so ...
January 20, 2012
Unheimlich Maneuvers
In the strong belief that one of the major steps a beginning writer has to take in order to progress is to learn to create a strong, effective settings, I have begun my creative writing class this semester with a discussion of setting, why it's important, and how to create one. For their first exercise, I've asked my students to write a two-page description of setting, or a one-page poem.
The exercise looks simple, but it's not. Apart from a few students who had recently taken a vacation...
The exercise looks simple, but it's not. Apart from a few students who had recently taken a vacation...
January 12, 2012
Top Mistakes Beginning Writers Make, Part II
Welcome back! It's all about second acts in this second year of Writing with Celia, and so my first real post of the new year is a part II. If you missed part I, well, go and read it! Otherwise, proceed below, with the second half of typical beginners' booboos.
A great book for
learning how to
read critically.
1. Not reading critically. Many of the faux pas committed by beginning writers are directly attributable to poor reading habits. Even if you spend the rest of your life...
A great book for
learning how to
read critically.
1. Not reading critically. Many of the faux pas committed by beginning writers are directly attributable to poor reading habits. Even if you spend the rest of your life...
January 11, 2012
It's Our First Anniversary!
Just wanted to polish off a quick post to celebrate the first anniversary of this blog, and I'll return to the discussion of beginners' problems in the regular post. It's been an interesting endeavor, keeping this blog. I've said a lot about setting goals and keeping them, and this blog is an example of how that works. I said I'd have a weekly post, and, minus the summer, I pretty much did that, so that feels good.
Some posts got a lot of feedback, some not so much. By far for me the two mos...
January 3, 2012
Top Mistakes Beginning Writers Make, Part I
It's time to spruce up the syllabus for the new semester, and that means lots of thinking about the kind of students I'll be teaching and what they need to learn. I teach an introductory course, so that means truly raw beginners—students who may never have attempted to write creatively before. Over the years, one comes to notice repeating struggles, and, since I'm into counting lately, I thought I'd compile a list of the top mistakes beginning writers make. At first I thought I'd distinguish ...
December 29, 2011
10 Resolutions That Will Make You a Better Writer in 2012
It's resolution time, and, hokey as they may be, they can actually work—you have the support of the whole world, who is also trying to start fresh. If you're reading this blog, you should be considering some writing-oriented resolutions. Below are 10 relatively easy steps you can resolve to take right now to make yourself a better writer in 2012. Now is the time!
10. Take a class. Hold your horses. Before you start complaining that you have neither the time nor the money to take writing...
10. Take a class. Hold your horses. Before you start complaining that you have neither the time nor the money to take writing...
December 19, 2011
The Greatest Stories Ever Retold
Christmas is a time for retelling stories—from the story of Jesus' birth, to the countless viewings of It's a Wonderful Life, to the retelling of family stories of past years, we never seem to tire of old stories, which is really weird in a culture otherwise obsessed with the new and disposable. Why are some stories worth retelling, and not others? And why are some retellings better than others?The story of the nativity might seem like an exception, because retelling it is an act of...
December 16, 2011
Writerly Gifts
Well, what else did you think I was going to blog about this week? You've got one week left before Christmas, and those freaky writer-types on your list. Before you pull a Tribbiani and get them the 100th fancy pen they've received in their lives, let me help you out. For one thing, you should think about the fact that just because someone is a writer or loves reading, it doesn't mean that they don't enjoy receiving the usual presents, like pretty scarves or fruitcake. But, if you want to...
December 8, 2011
Complicated Musings on a Sad Anniversary, or Has Poetry Lost Its Audience?
A couple of days ago, December 4, to be exact, marked the fifth anniversary of the publication of my first chapbook of poems, Shapeshifting. Unfortunately, Spire Press, who published it, didn't make it to the anniversary, dying just a few months short. My beautiful, weird-looking, neon-green chapbook is no more. It has ceased to be. Ex-Spired and gone to meet its maker, who is me—I have a handful of leftover copies, there's one still on , and some more floating around the new and used...
December 2, 2011
Bat & Poet: A Conversation with Chad Parmenter
Chad Parmenter received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, and is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Luther College in Iowa. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Harvard Review, and Kenyon Review, as well as being featured on Verse Daily. His debut chapbook, Bat & Man: A Sonnet Comic Book (Finishing Line Press, 2012), is a collection of poems based on the DC Comics superhero.I first "met" Chad Parmenter in 2009. While preparing a class on contemporary formal...
