Poet and essayist Ray Gonzalez once wrote that “home is…the place where an inner being begins and ends.” That’s probably the best definition of the theme woven through Linda Buckmaster’s presentation The Return: Writers Consider Homeplace, which seemed symbolic since there’s one-day left of the Stonecoast MFA summer residency. I spent eight days hanging with […]
Jaed Coffin drew a diagonal line on an easel pad and called it the spine. That’s the idea of identity, he told a room of writers at a presentation Friday. Coffin drew a wavy line that curved along the diagonal one, and called it the narrative. Then he shaded in dots where the lines intersected. […]
Looking up from his laptop, Richard Cambridge adjusted his eyeglasses before resting his elbows on the lectern. He surveyed the packed room of Stonecoast faculty and fellow grad students at a session he led Thursday. “How many of you’ve seen Mission: Impossible?” he said. Several hands shot up, remembering the opening montage of the popular […]
A roomful of writers laughed after Aaron Hamburger noted that nipples shouldn’t be compared to cherries, pencil erasers or Frankenstein’s neck bolts—at least not in literature. “Metaphors should be used to make things clear,” the Stonecoast faculty member said during his presentation. “But we’re all adults, here. I think we’re clear on what a penis […]
During yesterday’s presentation on music and improvisation, Gil Helmick and his band inspired the writers in the room to face their fears off the page. “I’ve actually watched my work change before my eyes while I’m performing,” he said. “Line breaks go. I’ll toss lines over my shoulder like they’re dead birds.” Helmick’s presentation Poetry, […]
Full disclosure: I’m the senior program director for the DC Creative Writing Workshop. The article below features the story of one of our high school students who takes part in the writing club. I thought his story was worth sharing here. Thinking of where he would’ve ended up without the DC Creative Writing Workshop’s after-school […]
Just after serving a three-year sentence for illegal possession of firearms, Hu$tle’s back on the streets of Washington, D.C. He’s got his swag back and has to let the whole ‘hood know he’s home—this time, for good. And things are different this time around. Hu$tle’s no longer involved with a gunrunning operation. This time, he’s […]
When Yao Hoke Glover recently traveled to China, the 40-year-old didn’t expect his trip to reflect the state of affairs between Asians and African Americans. He was among 40 educators traveling abroad as part of an exchange initiative while representing elementary, middle, secondary and primary schools in both the U.S. and Canada to train English […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After watching a 22-minute film on the hair salons in Ghana, it was quiet in the Sub level 2 lecture hall of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. The screen went blank and the lights were up. Yet no one spoke, just the sounds of teens scribbling in their journals. Their […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An irate business woman breaks up the crowd of dancers from in front of her office building. The scene could be any busy downtown street, populated by a cast of characters: a man late and lost on his way to a job interview, the business woman pacing and talking on her cell […]
Alan W. King 