On the drive to school this morning, I heard a story on NPR about a recipe for chicken that’s made in the South and is known to be “a punishment and a joy at the same time.” I had to pull out my notebook and write those words down because I knew that anything considered a punishment and a joy… View Post

For an explanation of this project, click here. Today we worked on character, and character for Creative Nonfiction can be a tricky thing because, like all things CNF, you have to work with what’s there. You can’t make someone funny or kind if they’re not. If a person is scared or obnoxious for example, you have to write them that… View Post

(For an explanation of this project, click here.) Turns out, that nut I was referring to last time is the Brazilian nut. Also, it takes anywhere from 10 to 30 years to produce a crop. Could be year eleven, fifteen, could be year twenty-eight when that thing is ripe for the picking. (Picking? Do you pick a Brazilian nut?) Once… View Post

{An Introduction} This Monday was a terrible, no good, very bad day with my 8th graders. There was yelling. I kicked a girl out of class. I cried on the way home from school, and that hasn’t happened in a while between this group and I. I was crying so hard I had to pull over and collect myself so that… View Post

  It seems rather aggressive to tell you I think you should be reading poetry in April, but I think you should be reading poetry in April. It is, after all, the month of poetry, nationally speaking. What’s that? You say you don’t like poetry? That’s because you’ve not read Jill Reid. Or, Stephanie DiMaria. Or Sarah Wells. Megan Willome has… View Post