What Happens at Penland…

This time I have a really great reason for disappearing from Blogland for two months. Really. I was teaching an 8-week concentration at the Penland School of Crafts, which was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. My plan was to...

How Liberal Arts Saved My Life

This week, a friend and I were talking about taking leaps–you know, the kind that uproot your life and leave you dizzy for a while, thinking, What have I done? So he asked me, “Where do you get this faith you have, that everything is going to work...

Project Writing Week

Last week, My friend Katie and I set aside five days for our own personal writing retreat. We’d been reading and editing each other’s novels for several months, and couldn’t seem to finish. With a new goal in mind (new endings, submissions in...