This fall, as part of my MFA program in Creative Writing at Lindenwood University I took a course in revisionist fiction. When I told them about the course, my friends and family would ask, “What’s revisionist fiction?” Revisionist fiction is when you take an original work, and riff on it. For instance, there’s the original Pride and Prejudice, and then there’s a plethora of revisionist works, like Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies, or Ibi Zoboi’s excellent YA novel, Pride, or Curtis Sittenfeld’s …
Writer
I love writing, and I also love to write ABOUT writing, classic female authors, and whatever else might be on my mind. I hope you enjoy the variety!
Feminist Fiction Writers: Dorothy Parker
If “A Phone Call” was the only story by Dorothy Parker that you ever read, you might dismiss her as frivolous. It would be easy to overlook the commentary on gender dynamics, or the skilled, biting humor that is grounded in self-deprecation, and which layers a profound sadness underneath. “A Telephone Call” is a tragi-comic rambling of a woman so desperate for a man to call her that she’s pushed to the edge. But if you consider that it was written in 1930, when women were expected to be …
Feminist Fiction Writers: Sara Orne Jewett
Sara Orne Jewett was a turn-of-the-century novelist, poet, and short fiction writer, known especially for emphasizing nature and descriptions of coastal Maine in her work. Two pieces she is most well known for are:
And
In The County of Pointed Firs, Jewett inserts throughout a dueling yet complementary sense of loss and perseverance. The rural town setting of coastal Maine drives the piece, and the environment is as harsh and …
Homemade/Home-Grown Pasta Sauce & Mystic Pizza
There's nothing more natural than making a homemade/home-grown pasta sauce on a steamy August afternoon. Do you disagree? Well, consider the bounty of our backyard garden, and maybe you'll understand. We had many, many tomatoes, and an embarrassment of basil and blue sage. I decided I couldn't let it all go to waste, and after pursuing various pasta recipes on the web, I came up with my own way to combine the ingredients. I think it turned out pretty well, because both (husband) …
Write up of the Write Up: Allure Beauty Box 5/21
I'm big into box subscriptions, but as I do not profess to be a lifestyle blogger and instead blog about anything that has to do with reading or writing, I thought I'd take a different angle with my box subscription. I'm not going to give you a review of the products that came in Allure's May beauty box; instead I'm giving you a rundown of how these products are written about by Allure's writers, contributors, and editors. In addition to the products in each month's box, there is a tiny …