Seeing In the Dark

So, it’s been a bit of a rough week, and I’ve got nothing to complain about. Apart from being closed up in my countryside cloister due to a broken-down car, great things have been happening. I’ve pretty much filled my pilot course (one spot is left, in case someone wants to nab it over the […]

Beginnings

So, things have been nuts. My mom came to visit, two days after the movers hauled everything into our new house. We picked her up at the airport and – you might already know this – when she got inside our front door and started climbing the stairs, she pretty much collapsed. Cue 911, and […]

To Write

Since coming home I’ve been working steadily on a novel that was always meant to be for Tim. It breaks my heart that he won’t ever get to see that dedication – for my brother – and to really get how much he meant to me and how much our relationship, often challenging, always complex, also enriching […]

Return to Writing

Last year, when Liz Howard won the Griffin Poetry Prize, she told the audience that writing saved her life. “[F]or me, poetry made life possible,” she said. I get this. I understand this a lot. Lately, things have not been easy for my family, and I’ve been at my mother’s. Before coming here, I was in […]

New Growth

The world up here is covered in slowly thinning snow; the ice not yet sliding down the river. The sun is warmer, the ravens are talking up a storm, the crows are back, and the magpies are busy building their stick-pod nests. It’s spring, that time when whatever you plant will start to sprout. For […]