I have been thinking for a while about how our attempts to define craft terms influence our students’ (and our own) aesthetics, and I have wanted to try other definitions. The first post is here. – Characterization: what makes the character different from everyone...
Shara McCallum Race You are the original incognito. Transparent, all things shine through you. She’s the whitest black girl you ever saw, lighter than “flesh” in the Crayola box. But, man, look at that ass and look at her shake it were just words, not...
This is the fourth and last in a series of posts on rethinking critique in the workshop. The first post is here. The second is here. The third is here. * * * In Part 3, I finally got around to the big question: whether the typical workshop actually holds up and...
This is the third in a series of posts on rethinking critique in the workshop. The first post is here. The second is here. The fourth is here. * * * In part 2, I started to discuss how the workshop has some interesting similarities to the minority experience of real...
This is a continuation of last week's Part 1 post of "'Pure Craft' Is a Lie." The series continues in Part 3 and Part 4. * * * Some of you may be thinking, fine, what’s wrong with teaching student writers to write using cultural norms? Why shouldn’t we teach writers...
This is the first post in this series, "'Pure Craft' Is a Lie" continuing in Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Some alternate titles for this post: The MFA Story Craft as Colonization Craft vs POC Why Writers of Color Don't Write Pure Craft Essays A Lot of Craft, A...
Hi, Pleiades fans! I'll be editing the website starting today. I first read Pleiades when I was an MFA student at Emerson College. Emerson had a stack of journals to look through, and I remember Pleiades had the best reviews section by far and some great fiction. I...