A Beijing taxi driver is stalked by someone who claims to have been his soul mate in five of his past lives during the last 1300 years. It’s an interesting premise for this novel, which has received rave reviews from critics around the world. This wildly ambitious rollick … Read More
Author: Kate Stover
“Geese cut a wedge out of the sky, drag the gray days behind them like a skein of old wool.”
Today is Thanksgiving Day — the perfect time to acknowledge with gratitude The Writer’s Almanac, American Life in Poetry, and the Poetry Foundation. These organizations email poems to thousands of people like me who wish to read new work by new poets every day. I wouldn’t have heard … Read More
“Usual advice for new faculty is sporadic, anecdotal, and unproven — no matter how well intentioned.”
This book is based on the author’s research, conducted over a period of 20 years, on the work habits of faculty members. He studied the behavioral patterns of academics as they taught, wrote, and interacted with their colleagues. From this, he developed a set of strategies that aim to “help … Read More
“Human minds yield helplessly to the suction of story,”
Researchers now believe that the average daydream is 14 seconds long, and we have about 2,000 of them each day (11). Scientists used to believe that humans dreamed in a story-like way only during their REM sleep cycles; it’s now thought that story-like dreams occur independent of REM and across … Read More
“. . . autumn was wrapping its hand around the world, and I loved it. The darkness, the rain, the sudden cracks in the past that opened up…”
It defies the imagine: Karl Ove Knausgaard, a writer from Norway, has caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal. An article in the WSJ’s magazine named him the “2015 Literary Innovator,” declaring that he was “quite probably in line to receive a Nobel Prize” for his six-part series. … Read More
“The first element is integrity of intention.”
“We teach who we are.”
I spent most of the last decade in the company of people who are passionate about the art and science of teaching. It was wonderful. Looking back, one of the ideas that still resonates with me came from Parker J. Palmer’s The Courage to Teach. His approach stands … Read More
“Was the crisis real or make-believe?”
What makes a light novel, such as this one, satisfying? Texture, I think, can have a lot to do with it. While the plot is thin — The Queen of England decides to leave the palace for a day — the author incorporates photos from actual events, insider knowledge … Read More
“Maybe I didn’t live but endured — cast against my will into something hard to govern and impossible to grasp…”
Zbigniew Herbert was 15 when Germany invaded Poland. It’s hard to imagine what it was like to grow up in the resistance. He became one of the most respected poets of Poland, and had a tremendous influence on younger writers. He advised them to detach themselves from “this truly … Read More
“Examine each position they take, and ask yourself ‘Why?'”
Negotiations often start with the question “What do you want?” The more important question, according to the authors of this classic book on negotiation theory, is “Why do you want that?” Understanding the interests that determine the positions is critical when searching for a wise solution. It isn’t easy. While … Read More
“…the majority of writing problems that I encounter in student papers should not be considered problems so much as symptoms.”
Bad writing has many symptoms, but only one primary cause, according to John R. Trimble, University Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at UT-Austin. The problem comes from the writer’s failure to be guided by the needs of the reader. Many novice writers, he notes, don’t understand the difference between writing … Read More
“The problem is that an interesting life doesn’t make an interesting memoir.”
William Zinsser, author of Writing About Your Life, continues, “Only small pieces of a life make an interesting memoir.” Rather than attempting to write about important periods of history, “be content to tell your small portion of a larger story.” (16) Choose to write about “small, self contained … Read More
“Her father always said, ‘That loneliness of his,’ and when she saw it in him now, she felt lonely, even abandoned for the moment it lasted . .”
Writing about loneliness is surely one of those tricks that should come with the warning “Do not attempt this at home.” Often, descriptions of loneliness trigger disengagement. It takes a master, such as Marilynne Robinson, to write a novel about loneliness that’s a page-turner. In an interview, when asked … Read More
“Teaching is situational.”
One of the first lessons that new teachers learn is that it’s impossible to predict how well a workshop, lecture or discussion will work. Teaching is situational. What works well in one class might not work in another. That’s why Stephen D. Brookfield, one of the most respected scholars … Read More
“You are a coward as well as a snob and a tyrant, Atticus.”
Much has been written about Atticus’s moral compromises in Go Set a Watchman, which might remove him from the list of “Best Dads in American Literature.” However, what I find more remarkable is Scout’s courage to reject the views of the men she loves most and to tell them that … Read More