Art – Beth Bates

Poetry, Official Palace Language of Wow: Another Gem from Thanks Help Wow

On an ice-glazed morning, today’s reading thaws my cockles. Thanks again, Annie L: When all is said and done, spring is the main reason for Wow. Spring is crazy, being all hope and beauty and glory. She is the resurrection. Spring is Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. /Continue reading “Poetry, Official Palace Language of Wow: Another Gem from Thanks Help Wow”

Wrangling An Elusive Essay Form: Mosaic

1. Collage, fragmented, montage, segmented, lyric, sectioned: a mosaic by any other name was still a thorn in my flesh. The first mosaic I ever tried to write amounted to little more than a clumsy knockoff of a Richard Rodriguez essay assigned in my first MFA nonfiction workshop. 2. Three years later, I tried again.Continue reading “Wrangling An Elusive Essay Form: Mosaic”

The Traditional Publishing Path: a Midwest Writer’s Workshop agented author shares her wisdom, from how to find a literary agent to what to expect while you’re out on submission

As you emerge from your food coma I present the lovely and talented Annie Sullivan as my first guest blogger since Eliza Tudor shared her wisdom on navigating a writer’s life after the MFA. [Thanks, Annie!]

RIP Lou Reed, Poet

“Romeo Had Juliette”

Caught between the twisted stars
The plotted lines the faulty map
That brought Columbus to New York

AWP 2013 RECAP: WRITE LIKE A MOFO

Dear Butler University MFA program, Booth, Hilene Flanzbaum, Rob Stapleton, and Andy Levy, Thank you. Thank you for sending me to AWP 2013. As an expression of my deep gratitude, I offer this wee token of my affection and appreciation for you and your commitment to your staff and students. So. Let’s recap. AWP isContinue reading “AWP 2013 RECAP: WRITE LIKE A MOFO”

Stretch, Run and Cheer the Murakami and Tudor Way: “If Only Virginia Woolf Had Done Yoga”

Stop thinking about others as competition. It’s hard sometimes to ignore what others are doing, but nobody’s path is the same.

Moments with Merwin: God Bless America!

I must admit, as a proser I was unfamiliar with this two-time Pulitzer Prize winner’s work. In fact, I wasn’t aware that the United States even has an official poet. (How cool is that?) Thank you, NPR, for shining the light into my darkness. In this story, I listened to the handsome octogenarian read one of his earlier, most famous poems. It has haunted me for days (in a good way), and now I will share it with you.

Seeing Art for the First Time

In Seeing Art for the First Time, my friend Shawn, a regular guy in his thirties who has been blind since he was 10’ish, talks about his first experience with art, at the IMOCA. I always enjoy his perspective. Thanks, Shawn.