Missing my poetry-mom Lucille Clifton especially today. Here she is reading aloud a poem of hers that I love. Until I got to graduate school, until I got to the people who would become my writing family and my writing community, I wasn’t encouraged much by my peer set in creative writing classes. Especially while I lived and worked in the Deep South. I always felt out of place, out of…
(Almost) Everything I Know About Writing I Learned from Fanfiction
I spent a fair amount of my youth writing dense, novel-length, & character-driven fanfiction (henceforth referred to as fanfic) until 1am on a school night. After all my homework was done, of course. My fandoms were primarily Sailor Moon and Harry Potter, the former being the one I really dove into. And it was, perhaps, the best crash course in writing money could’ve bought me. So for the newbie writer,…
[News Flash] November 25, 2018
Thank you so much to yesterday’s guest, Cinelle Barnes! If you haven’t already, enter the #DebBallGiveaway to win a copy of Monsoon Mansion. You can enter by sharing our post on Facebook and/or retweeting the following tweet (make sure you follow @DebutanteBall on Twitter too!): https://t.co/HL8KZ37b5f RT and follow for a chance to win a copy of #MonsoonMansion @DebutanteBall @devislaskar @estefsays @LayneFargo @MFournierWatson @KA_Doore #WritingCommunity #memoir — The Debutante Ball (@DebutanteBall)…
Interview with Cinelle Barnes + MONSOON MANSION giveaway
I’m so thrilled to welcome Cinelle Barnes to the Debutante Ball this week! Cinelle Barnes is an essayist, memoirist, and educator from Manila, Philippines, a recipient of fellowships and scholarships from Kundiman and Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA), and is the writer-in-residence at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. She received an MFA from Converse College. Her work has appeared in Catapult, Buzzfeed, Literary Hub, Hyphen, The Margins, and…
Dear Reader
I remember when I went to my writing group after my agent got the offer from Penguin, and a writer friend asked me if I was happy. He wanted to know if selling the book was as great as I thought it would be, or if it was somehow disappointing. A let-down. I told him it’s every bit as great as I hoped. It’s a dream…
Celebrate Native Heritage today with a book, an article, and a podcast
Dear reader, November is Native American Heritage Month and instead of writing a Thanksgiving post, I’m compiling a very brief list comprised of one article, book, and podcast that I’ve enjoyed this year and would like to share with you. In June, Jen Deerinwater wrote a fantastic piece for Rewire.News on “Two Spirit,” which she defines as the “umbrella English language term that refers to non-binary gender identities that were…
Giving Thanks
Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, filled with delicious food and quality time with family (whether the biological or the chosen kind). I have to admit: I’m Not Great at expressing gratitude. Not because I don’t feel thankful for all the wonderful people and things in my life, but because I’m always looking ahead to the next milestone, ambition nipping at…
Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: Gratitude
At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. — Albert Schweitzer I’m so grateful to so many this past year, for lifting me up when I was feeling low. Writing is often a lonely venture, and this time last year, I was discouraged….
Simple Gratitude in Complex Times
I’ve had a lot to be thankful for in this past year, and a lot more I am grateful for in the year to come. Some of that has been expected – the realization of a long-held dream, the papery reality of ARCs, the positive reactions from early readers, the joy of my toddler, and the love of my family and friends – but some has been completely unexpected. The…
[News Flash] November 18, 2018
Thank you so much to yesterday’s guest, Vijaya Nagarajan! If you haven’t already, enter the #DebBallGiveaway to win a copy of Feeding a Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual and Ecology in India. You can enter by sharing our post on Facebook and/or retweeting the following tweet (make sure you follow @DebutanteBall on Twitter too!): https://t.co/TeS5gm7NyJ Delighted to have Vijaya Nagarajan as @DebutanteBall guest author! RT & follow for a chance to win…
