Category: Bullish Notions

  • Are You a Writer? Make Sourdough Bread!

    Are You a Writer? Make Sourdough Bread!

    Here’s a little entertainment for your Thursday evening, as you head into the weekend. One great habit to pick up if you’re a writer is to make sourdough bread. Because baking sourdough takes a long time. You have to stay in the house to keep an eye on it. There are long, long periods of it rising,…

  • Summer Reading Begins

    Summer Reading Begins

    The semester is over, the students are heading home, some are hanging around to graduate. It rained last night, and today the clouds reign. A wonderful morning to begin summer reading. I never know what I’m going to start with. I just wander around in the library until something grabs me. And this year, once…

  • The Salvadoran, Hip-Hop, Mormon Voice of William Palomo

    The Salvadoran, Hip-Hop, Mormon Voice of William Palomo

    I was at the Associated Writing Programs conference in Tampa in March, where students and professor of creative writing gather for a weekend. I had a great time, because I was on the lookout for Latino writers, and I found them. And this young man was a true find! William Palomo is the son of…

  • Ode to Instagram

    Ode to Instagram

    I stayed away from the thing for a long time. To me, it was just another waste of entire days, something that got in the way of reading poetry or having coffee with a real human being across the table. And, it is, or it can be. But, that’s a question of self-discipline. I stayed…

  • A Letter to My Generation: We f**ked up.

    A Letter to My Generation: We f**ked up.

    I’m teaching Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale now, and it just hit me–it’s not about feminism. I mean, yeah it is. Most everyone knows the overall plot: it’s a dystopian novel, in which a zealot, religious military takes over the United States and subjugates all women, making a number of them into Handmaids. They’re the ones who…