What Now? What Next?

Noelle Aleksandra Hufnagel Five years. Five years of long commutes from the North Side of Chicago. Five years of working full-time in the West Suburbs. Five years of late night grad classes in the South Loop. Five years of loner weeknights and loser weekends in front of my computer. Five years of life. Five years of finding time, scraping together minutes, barely finishing. Five years of going, going, going. Five...

Writing In Disguise

Karolina Faraci I avoid writing like a plague. When people ask me who I am, I say “I’m a writer.” But how can I be a writer if I don’t write every day? Or even every other day? How can I call myself one when I really truly do wait for inspiration, for something to happen, to push me into the writing mode, and then I spend twelve, sixteen, eighteen hours non-stop, feeling high, my heart pounding, sweat...

Remind Me Why I Do This?

“Literature is nothing but carpentry…  Both are very hard work.  With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood…  I never have done any carpentry, but it’s the job I admire most.”  –Gabriel Garcia Márquez My dad had two workshops:  one in the basement and a smaller one in the garage.  Bright red vice grips and glue stood ready to mend broken broom handles or busted...

Some Days, It’s About All I Can Do

Christine M. Rice Friday, May 4, 2012 Hundreds of characters are rumbling around my brain.  Last night was my final class of the spring semester and, over the last three weeks, I read over 1,000 manuscript pages.  My brain feels swollen, character-logged.  They’re packed sardine-close up there.  They pop up in my dreams, bump into me at Trader Joe’s, swerve around me in crosswalks, chat me up at the dog...