Articles, essays, editorials, and meditations on T&W’s mission, “educating the imagination.”
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The Japanese believe there are gods to be found everywhere, in scrolls and screens and tatami mats, a pair of winter boots, a tufted quilt. Human speech, in other words, is only part of a much larger, more expansive conversation. It behooves us to commune properly with our possessions, says the organizing guru, Marie Kondo. She herself greets her house each time she comes home, grateful for its continuing shelter and protection.
Wild-eyed (the way I love him most), he’s off to his desk to begin his poem, not by using the metaphor-making template I’ve designed, but by inviting his reader to come fly with him… and his parrots. He writes half-standing, hopping on one foot. And within minutes he’s bounced back to my side.
Nicole Shawan Junior’s essay from PEN America’s The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting a Writer’s Life in Prison describes a writing workshop in which success hinged on a crucial pivot to center storytelling. “Teaching craft was still a goal, but one not nearly as important as hearing their stories. “
Bill Murray and “Dog” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti are the inspiration for this writing activity, which works for writers of all ages.
2022 Bechtel Prize Winner Shilpi Suneja’s students make language their subject. “The dominance of English is a lie we tell ourselves.”
Everyone’s voice merged into one poem, so it was not only a site of writing but also community, listening, and being heard.
“Her words and experiences triggered me over and over again. I wasn’t ready to face my own demons. How could I possibly read and critique a memoir about hers?”
“When you are teaching creative writing, you always get students to start with the idea that a poem creates a picture with words. It doesn’t only have to be a picture you see; it also can be something you smell and hear and taste. A poem is an experience of the world. That is true no matter what grade a student is in.”
Everybody thinks teachers want all their students to get As. And, of course, we are happy when they do. But as a human being who is also a teacher, you can’t help but hope for more for your students.
By Judith Chriqui Benchimol ACT I When my sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Fine assigned an essay on Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Necklace,” I panicked. I didn’t understand the essay prompt or know how to structure my response to her questions. I couldn’t think the way Mrs. Fine wanted me to think. I wrote in…