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The Accidental Professor

When I was a little kid and we went to the beach, I always had this strange and terrifying and utterly disorienting moment where I’d think to myself this is our first day at the beach; we have four more days at the beach, and then this vacation is over.  That sentence, I now realize, … Continue reading »

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The Story Behind “The Damage”

In which Emma has a dream come true and talks about it for you. AND MAKES HER SUMMARY RHYME. Continue reading »

2013 is the year of Awesome / appearances / bad behavior in public places / BOOM. / coffee / creepers / Cue the Golden Girls theme song / Doing / Embarrassing stories / Emma is very lucky / Emma's Adventures in Over-Analyzing / Emma's attempts at normal life / Emma's attempts at real life (failed or otherwise) / Emma's theories on what makes for Very Good Poetry / Epic Cat Battles / Fear and how to face it / Free to Be You and Me / Frills and Fancies / Gertrude Stein (feline version) / Going to eleven / gratuitous photos of whatnot / Language systems / Losing courage and other freakouts / mullings and ramblings / Mustachio'd Kitties / My meowing roommates / My nerves are bad tonight. Yes bad. / NaPoMo / New Fangled Technology and Whatnot / overthinking / perfection is boring. period. / Photography / poems / poetry / reading / readings / shameless cat photos / Statesboro / Stationary Objects and Collisions Therewith / summations / Thanks and thanks again / The Hunger Games / the poem factory / The Secret Life of Objects / thought for the day / What Emma is up to / Where You Can Find Me (Or At Least My Words) / writing life / You gotta have friends

Radio Free Gertrude

In which Emma writes about why it’s really hard for her to not bring up the formal wear store Frills and Fancies in every conversation, and also talks about her cats, duh. Continue reading »

2013 is the year of Awesome / A festival of photos / A teacher's education / Alice B. Toklas (feline version) / announcements / appearances / awesome / bad behavior in public places / books / classroom / creative writing / creative writing pedagogy / disagreeable/agreeable / education / edumacation / Embarrassing stories / Emma is very lucky / Epic / EPIC WIN / eyebrows / GenPop Books / Georgia / Georgia Southern / Gertrude Stein (feline version) / Going to eleven / gratuitous photos of whatnot / instagram / Interviews / kidney stones / learning / Live-Tweeting / Malificae / medical curiosities / META / multi-tasking / Mustachio'd Kitties / My meowing roommates / NaPoMo / NaPoWriMo / Online culture / pedagogy / Perspiration? Inspiration? / Photo for the day / Photography / poem challenge / poem for the day / poems / poetry / Poetry Exercises / poets / Probably quite a bit TMI / relationships / shameless cat photos / shameless self-promotion / Squee! / teaching / teaching writing / The grind / The latest medical anomaly / the poem factory / The Witch Trials / Twitter / What Emma is up to / wonders and apparitions / writing community / writing life / writing teachers

“And on the radio you hear ‘November Rain;’ that solo’s awful long, but it’s got a good refrain.”*

In which I announce the fact that I’m going to be on the radio tomorrow and talk about how awful the weather is today, which may or may not also happen tomorrow on the radio. Continue reading »

2013 is the year of Awesome / A manifesto of sorts / A teacher's education / Academia / Academic inquiries / accidental confessions / aesthetic theory / All-around amazing people / Amazing discoveries and wondrous visions / appearances / Art and life and love and The Big Stuff / awesome kids we should all keep an eye out for / bad behavior in public places / bright shining spots in the very much dark / classroom / COLLECT! / cool/not cool / creative writing / creative writing pedagogy / Department of Writing and Linguistics / disagreeable/agreeable / Doing / drafts / education / edumacation / Embarrassing stories / Emma is very lucky / Epic Fail? EPIC WIN! / Failure Schmailure / Fear and how to face it / Free to Be You and Me / Georgia Southern / Going to eleven / Inquiries into academics / inspiration / Internet culture / it is ON. / learning / Losing courage and other freakouts / my students / NaPoMo / NaPoWriMo / On being a poet / Online culture / pedagogy / perfection is boring. period. / Perspiration? Inspiration? / pictorial representations / poems / poetry / Poetry Exercises / teaching / teaching writing / The evolution of Emma / The grind / the poem factory / There is no try / What Emma is up to / wonders and apparitions / writing community / writing life / writing teachers / You better work / [expletive deleted]

Are There Things That Are Important Beyond All This Fiddle? Or NaPoWriMo and You

In which Emma rationalizes her decision to write and post a poem a day along with her students. Publicly. No, really. Continue reading »

2013 is the year of Awesome / A manifesto of sorts / A teacher's education / Academia / Academic inquiries / Amazing discoveries and wondrous visions / Art and life and love and The Big Stuff / awesome / AWP / AWP 2013 / AWP Boston / bad behavior in public places / books / bright shining spots in the very much dark / Chchchchanges / contemporary poetry / Corrections / Cue the Golden Girls theme song / disagreeable/agreeable / education / edumacation / Emily Dickinson = The Ultimate / Emma is very lucky / Emma's Adventures in Over-Analyzing / Emma's attempts at real life (failed or otherwise) / Emma's theories on what makes for Very Good Poetry / Epic / EPIC WIN / evaluations / events / Failure Schmailure / False Dichotomies / Fight the power! / Free to Be You and Me / Friendship Is Magic / Going to eleven / graduate school / Home / hopes and dreams / Inquiries into academics / inspiration / Instructions / learning / learning patience slowly / Losing courage and other freakouts / Maps and legends / META / MFA / mullings and ramblings / On being a poet / perfection is boring. period. / Perspiration? Inspiration? / poems / poetry / poets / Power to the People / publishing / publishing (or not publishing / random musings / ranting and raving / re-purposing / Recharging the mental batteries / rejection / rejection slippage / Retrospective / summations / teaching / teaching writing / The evolution of Emma / the poem factory / The power and the money / The Thoughts of a Poetry Fan Girl / the three jobs / thought for the day / where are you going where have you been / Who The Eff Cares? / wonders and apparitions / Words of Wisdom / writers conferences / writing and not writing / Writing Anew / writing community / writing life / writing space / writing teachers / You better work / You gotta have friends

AWP: Traditions, Revisions, Permissions (Or I’m Okay, You’re Okay, Let’s Skip The Dance Party)

She doesn’t even go here! Continue reading »

2013 is the year of Awesome / A festival of linkage / A festival of photos / A teacher's education / Academia / Academic inquiries / accidental confessions / All-around amazing people / Amazing discoveries and wondrous visions / announcements / appearances / Art and life and love and The Big Stuff / awesome / awesome kids we should all keep an eye out for / awesome presses / AWP / AWP 2013 / AWP Boston / bad behavior in public places / Bad girls and good girls gone bad / Bizarre associations and other odd tendencies / book signings / books / bright shining spots in the very much dark / chapbooks / COLLECT! / contemporary poetry / Cue the Golden Girls theme song / Department of Writing and Linguistics / education / edumacation / Emily Dickinson = The Ultimate / Emma is very lucky / Emma's attempts at normal life / Emma's attempts at real life (failed or otherwise) / Emma's theories on what makes for Very Good Poetry / EPIC WIN / events / Fan Girl / Free to Be You and Me / Georgia Southern / Going to eleven / gratitude / Indian Springs School Visiting Writers Series / Inquiries into academics / inspiration / instagram / Internet culture / IRL Drama Llama / it is ON. / Kate Greenstreet / learning / my students / One Can Find Me Here (Or At Least My Words) / Online culture / Pass it on! / plans / poems / poetry / Poetry Rock Stars / poetry superheroes / poets / reading / readings / Sarah Lawrence College / schedules / shameless self-promotion / Sicilian slang / Squee! / teaching / teaching writing / The latest medical anomaly / The Witch Trials / Very Excellent News / What Emma is up to / where are you going where have you been / Where You Can Find Me (Or At Least My Words) / wonders and apparitions / writers conferences / writing community / writing life / writing teachers / You better work / You gotta have friends

Sometimes things are exciting …

In which Emma talks about some Seriously Exciting Things and gives so many links your head may explode with all the awesome. Continue reading »

readings / appearances / hopes and dreams / books / bad behavior in public places / Squee! / The Thoughts of a Poetry Fan Girl / Very Excellent News / announcements / COLLECT! / where are you going where have you been / Home / Pass it on! / Emma is very lucky / EPIC WIN / Going to eleven / All-around amazing people / contemporary poetry / poets / it is ON. / poetry / What Emma is up to / reading / poems / awesome / INTENSE / gratitude / Malificae / GenPop Books / The Witch Trials / Epic / Kate Greenstreet / Indian Springs School Visiting Writers Series

The Witches Are Flying Your Way

In which Emma invites the people of the greater Birmingham area to come and hear her and Kate Greenstreet read. Y’all, it’s gonna be a THING. Continue reading »

365 / A festival of photos / A teacher's education / accidental confessions / aesthetic theory / Amazing discoveries and wondrous visions / Art and life and love and The Big Stuff / Artist's Renditions / bongos / bright shining spots in the very much dark / Corrections / disagreeable/agreeable / disappearances / DUENDE / Emma is very lucky / Emma's attempts at normal life / Emma's attempts at real life (failed or otherwise) / Epic Fail? EPIC WIN! / evaluations / Fear and how to face it / Film / flickr / gratitude / gratuitous photos of whatnot / Happy accidents / instagram / IRL Drama Llama / learning / learning patience slowly / Losing courage and other freakouts / Milestones and suchness / mullings and ramblings / My meowing roommates / nonappearances / On being a poet / Photo for the day / Photography / pictorial representations / poets / Resolutions / Retrospectitating / Retrospective / Sarah Lawrence College / shameless cat photos / The evolution of Emma / The latest medical anomaly / what I don't write about / wonders and apparitions

Dr. Strangedrugs, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying Because I Forgot About What I Was Worrying About (Part Three)

In which I finally kind of finish up the whole Neurontin story. Kind of. Also I make two very important clarifications, one of which is about bongos. Continue reading »

2012 / 365 / A festival of photos / bad behavior in public places / Barbecue / Creative Writing and the Web / Emma is very lucky / Emma miraculously survives another holiday / Emma's Adventures in Over-Analyzing / Facebook memes / failed or otherwise / Family Traditions / fashion / festivity / Film / flickr / Free to Be You and Me / Friendship Is Magic / gratuitous photos of whatnot / Home / hopes and dreams / instagram / Internet culture / internet fads / IRL Drama Llama / It is ON 2012 / It's the end of the world as we know it / memes / New Fangled Technology and Whatnot / New Years / Photo for the day / Photography / Pretty glimpses / Resolutions / Retrospectitating / Retrospective / Scenes from my childhood / That Was The Week That Was / The evolution of Emma / The Year of Projects / What Emma is up to / Where I Often Travel / Who The Eff Cares? / wonders and apparitions

That Was The Week That Was: Week Forty-Eight

In which Emma somehow manages to provide spoilers for her own damn blog. Continue reading »