A few pieces of good news today, all leading up to some additional news about my writing life that I’ll announce later this week: ♦ Living Arrangements was named a category finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. ♦ I will be heading to one of my favorite places — Portland, Oregon — for a week [...]

Today was the first day in weeks that I had a free evening to myself, and it was all thanks to a canceled writing group meeting. As much as I love a good critique session, this cancellation allowed me to 1. actually enjoy some time outside after work and 2. catch most of the live [...]

Okay, THIS will be my final Sophie Kerr post. I swear. If you’re all Sophied out, please check back Thursday morning for a post that is 100% unrelated to this prize. Promise. So I managed to tune into part of the Sophie Kerr ceremony webcast. Here are my thoughts: For much of the ceremony, I [...]

My college graduation experience wasn’t exactly a typical one. I woke up knowing that one of two things could happen: I could either walk away with a significant amount of money, or I’d leave hugely disappointed. Washington College awards the Sophie Kerr Prize each year to the graduating senior “who has the best ability and [...]

I don’t have much time today, so I thought I’d share the link to Alice Sebold’s essay about literary prizes, “Eyes on the Prize.” Some writers view literary awards with a healthy dose of skepticism, which I totally get. Or, as Sebold said after winning an award — and after more than a few cocktails [...]