Fiction-Writing: My Dead Darling

By guest contributor, Sharon Bially. Years ago I began fiddling around with a work-in-progress known, for lack of a better title, as My Life. It was all very preliminary: some vague thoughts about where the story might lead; some images…

Too Many Metaphors?

“Our mother performed in starlight.” Thus reads the succinct and succulent first sentence of Swamplandia!, Karen Russell’s 2011 literary blockbuster (Oops! Dead metaphor.) And while it doesn’t, at first blush, contain a metaphor—their mother, Hilola Bigtree, really does perform under…

Awkward Party Conversations with Writers

At some point, I took the plunge and told people that I’m a writer — without any unnecessary adjectives like “aspiring” or “terrible.” Unfortunately, now that people know, they ask me about it during parties and gynecological exams*. Let’s be honest,…