Why 99 Percent of What First Inkling Editors Read “Don’t Shine,” and What You Can Do to Polish Your Writing Diamond (Start by NOT Overusing Metaphors) So I glean from the writing you’re doing on campus that: You broke up. You’re depressed. Your parents – in fact, nobody – understands you. It’s all meaningless. My […]

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In 2006, Bud Koenemund, then a student poet, asked me to contribute a foreword to a book of his verse. Despite his gentle mocking of old conventions, and despite the […]