After nine years, I decided it was high time I updated my website. I considered hiring a designer to do it for me. But then, I would be constantly emailing and raising concerns, little nit-picky ones, so I decided, fuck it, I am an independent woman. I can do it myself. Of course, I always... Continue Reading →
blog
treading water
It is the week of Mother's Day and you know what that means:liquor store runs piecing together puzzles at my dining room table to keep my hands busymaking plans with people, even though I'm an introvert and the noise of crowds and the pressure of conversation aggravates me because I'm afraid to be alone, afraid to curl... Continue Reading →
it would be easier if
Most misfits struggle against the story that's expected of them. You know, the cultural scripts of good citizenship that come at us in life: how to be a woman, how to be a man, how to be successful at jobs/relationships/life, how to be happy, how to love, how to marry, how to fit into society.... Continue Reading →
Q118 Songs
Dirty Harry - Grace Guys My Age - Hey Violet Bad Intentions - Niykee Heaton Mr. Sandman - SYML Look What You Made Me Do - Taylor Swift Horns - Bryce Fox Bad Things - Jace Everett Your Heart Is As Black As Night - Melody Gardot Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye Wonderful... Continue Reading →
19 tips for dating a writer
don't read her journals. trust me. if she offers you some of her work to read, remember kindness. and don't assume the asshole character is you (although it very well could be). she might forget to eat. make her food. when she stays up late writing, kiss her head on your way upstairs, don't shame her about skipping sex.... Continue Reading →
We saw LA
I went to LA with my friends, the frat. We went because my mentor invited us to check out her press, understand how it works. Writers don't say no to an opportunity like that. We stayed in the El Sereno neighborhood, which is right by the train tracks.Maybe not the best part of town, but... Continue Reading →
compiling my thesis (sort of)
No one told me how hard it is to compile a thesis.It's like you get into grad school (hurray! 🎉) and then you do some work, and then it gets progressively harder and harder and then you quit your job to focus on school and spend so many of your waking minutes obsessing over getting... Continue Reading →
plea for life
Last summer, at residency, I met this woman. She came as an alum and shared her words and I laughed and laughed and cried and cried. She was a student in my program's first class. She read from her application to the MFA program, which she had written 13 years prior. She called it a... Continue Reading →
another year older
So we went to Washington, the boys and me. They were absolute champions with luggage. OK, most of the time. When they weren't, the kindness of strangers came through again, as it always seems to. Holden, no longer the baby, took care of the baby in his own way. The cherry blossoms were out, the... Continue Reading →
residing
I have long thought myself displaced.I have lived in the Midwest for a dozen years, pointing out to anyone who would listen that I'm not from around here. I complained about the too hot and too cold weather, the lack of things to do. The lack of mountains and ocean. I'm a Pacific Northwesterner, I... Continue Reading →
holly pelesky 