Alison McGhee's Blog, page 52

Kathi and April are both doing it, so why shouldn't she?

[image error]She copies her friends and decides to write a poemish thing a day for a month. After all, if they told her to jump off a bridge, sure, she would jump off a bridge. Why not?

Good Lord,  I've got to write a poemish thing, she tells her daughter. They are sitting in a semi-grimy motel room on Day Four of a 1500-mile road trip. It's check-out time.

Like right now, she says to her daughter. Quick, give me a topic.

Fruit! says the daughter.

Fruit? Too general. Too broad. Despite the fact that for some ...

The only penpal she ever kept writing to

[image error]Last week, in the church for the non-churchy, the minister, after talking about unexpected gifts, asked everyone to turn to a stranger and give that stranger an unexpected gift. The gift could be a handshake, or a wish, or a something. An anything.

She didn't much want to give an unexpected gift, because she didn't feel like talking to anyone she didn't know - she is one of those under-the-radar members of the church for the non-churchy, and all she really wanted to do was sing and recite the ...

March 14, 1935

[image error]There are many men in the world celebrating a birthday today, millions and millions of them. There aren't that many birthdays to choose from, when you think about it - only 365 possibilities, and we all have to share them.

We focus in on the man in the photo up there, the one wearing the plaid shirt and the white socks, the one holding the fat cross-eyed baby, his firstborn, on his lap.

Happy birthday, man in the plaid shirt. You might be wearing one today, although I don't know that for sure. ...

Join us for a one-day creative writing workshop!

[image error]Do you want to jumpstart your writing? Try a different approach? Lift yourself out of your rut (not that I'm assuming you're in one)?

Fellow writer Brad Zellar and I will be teaching two one-afternoon creative writing workshops in Northfield, MN on Saturday, April 10.  We'd love to see you there. Here are the details.

Workshop #1: Writing from Place
April 10, 1-5 p.m.
Northfield Public Library, Division Street, Northfield, MN

True, true, not true

[image error]Have you ever played the game True, True, Not True? (If that is indeed what is called. You sit around and take turns telling two things about yourself that are true, and one that isn't, and the others in the circle - best played around a campfire - guess which is the untrue thing.)

This is a variation, in which I list some of the things I saw yesterday, down here on the forgotten coast. Everything on the list is true except for one. And which one is it?

A brown pelican, gulping down a large...