This past weekend, I spent some time in Indiana with about a dozen other writers who mostly met about three months ago at the Festival of Faith and Writing. We decided to come together because we’re all at similar places in our careers, like-minded in ideology and vision for our poetry, and we’re all outrageouslyContinueContinue reading “Building Community”
Author Archives: Sarah M. Wells
Negative Nancy and the Art of Self-Promotion
First off, a short essay of mine, “Grounded: Engaging the Spiritual in Poetry” is available on Poets’ Quarterly, which just relaunched this month. Check it out!Secondly, I now have all kinds of anxieties about what I just did: self-promote.It probably doesn’t seem like I have any trouble with promoting myself. I rock the social media, y’all. IContinueContinue reading “Negative Nancy and the Art of Self-Promotion”
Book Seven 2012: Townie by Andre Dubus III
Townie by Andre Dubus III is the kind of book you can’t help thinking about when you aren’t reading it. You live in its scenes while you are eating dinner with your kids or riding in the car, thinking about the narrator, wondering what is going to happen next, considering the plot development and theContinueContinue reading “Book Seven 2012: Townie by Andre Dubus III”
Corrective Lenses and Parenting
I have been cranky all night and the peanut butter and banana plus chocolate dessert is not helping. It is a shame, too, because it’s just about as perfect of a night as there could be in mid-June. It is still light at 8:30 and the neighborhood is milking every last second of daylight. TheContinueContinue reading “Corrective Lenses and Parenting”
Family Vacations, Then and Now
This weekend marked the first family vacation with my side of the family since the Great Myrtle Beach Thanksgiving Vacation Disaster of 2007. None of us said anything to reference it, but as we set up our campers at the state park on Friday night, cold wind whipping across the lake and blowing in heavyContinueContinue reading “Family Vacations, Then and Now”
Book 6, 2012: Beautiful and Pointless by David Orr
I just finished Beautiful & Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry by David Orr, and now I am sad. It isn’t often that I come across a person who cares so much about poetry but is equally as honest about the state of contemporary poetry, and that willingness to illuminate the reality of modern poetry andContinueContinue reading “Book 6, 2012: Beautiful and Pointless by David Orr”
Memorial Day Mulch and More
What a great weekend! The brick patio is finished, I (re)planted a holly bush destroyed by the dog-that-no-longer-lives-here and planted some Russian sage and dianthus annuals, and then mulched the yard. A mulched and landscaped yard is so satisfying, maybe as satisfying as harvesting vegetables from my garden. Maybe. Okay, a tie then. Here’s whatContinueContinue reading “Memorial Day Mulch and More”
May Days
The River Teeth Nonfiction Conference wrapped up nicely this weekend. I don’t think we could have asked for a better experience (save for, perhaps, the mice… I could have done without the mice incident). For a taste of what happened, visit the River Teeth website, where I’ve posted a few videos from the panels andContinueContinue reading “May Days”
Turning Over Earth
I am woefully behind on my 30th year goal to blog once a week. To recap since April, poem-a-day went fairly well and generated a good chunk of material plus an essay I’m excited about, Brandon traveled a lot for work, I worked a lot for work, Henry turned one, Lydia turned six, we celebratedContinueContinue reading “Turning Over Earth”
Books 4 & 5, 2012: A Double Life and Bring Down the Little Birds
In the quiet hours after my children fall asleep, after the whining and the bickering, after the requests for snacks and meals and drinks and games and puzzles and cars and hold me and carry me and tuck me in and sing me a song and just one more song, after all of that, IContinueContinue reading “Books 4 & 5, 2012: A Double Life and Bring Down the Little Birds”
Sarah Marie Wells 