‘Does My Poetry Have to Be Difficult to Be Real?’
You can have what you want, and should.
Read more
Yanyi
‘How Do I Write If I Never Finish Anything?’
You've got to interrupt the "plan first, work later" mentality.
Read moreThe Writing: Going back to where it started
Today is the last edition of The Writing. Starting next week, I am releasing, instead, one more letter a month just for paid subscribers like you.
Read morePostscript: On cultural capitalism and talent
How to become someone chosen?
Read more‘What If I’m Just Missing…Talent?’
You are missing something, but it's not what you think.
Read moreThe Writing: When are you going to get a real job?
There was a point in time that I assumed that writing was just one job: to get the thoughts down and out. But as so many reader letters reflect here at The Reading, art is at least two jobs. The first is to resist; the second is to make.
Read moreThe Writing: Antiracism and the classroom
My fundamental work in the classroom is building a new trust for my students, however it is they have lost trust in their own power.
Read moreThe Writing: Some examples of unproductive writing spaces
Last week, I wrote on the importance of unproductive writing spaces and some initiatives I’ve started to make them. I also asked readers to contribute their own examples of gathering with other writers.
Read moreThe Writing: The price of admission
Almost two weeks ago, I posted a question on social media for Asian American writers: “What do you really, really wish was available to you that would help you as a person and writer?”
Read moreThe Writing: If The Reading were a book…
I’ve tried many possible forms—a memoir, a how-to book, and even fiction. But every iteration so far has felt hollow in its delivery.
Read morePostscript: In search of ‘a completely original moment’
I felt alienated from my existence in the world. I wanted to feel as though I was still in it.
Read more‘Someone Else Published My Idea. Now What?’
This situation reflects your hopes and fears.
Read moreThe Writing: On designing a writing life
There’s a distinction between the years in which you are figuring out what it means to pursue writing professionally and the years when you actually start navigating it.
Read moreThe Writing: Making the work visible
The moment I feel momentum in a project, all I want to do is regiment the number of words I will add in a day and stack them in a timeline until I know the exact day I will reach my goal. I want to know the future. And you probably know how that ends.
Read moreThe Writing: Is this the beginning of a new book?
Perhaps third time's the charm.
Read more