You can't replicate walking 94 days through the wilderness by yourself with a really heavy pack until you do it.

Every time I read Erin Belieu work I'm pierced in that wonderful way poetry can.

I'm reading George Saunders's story collection, "Tenth of December." He was my mentor at the University of Syracuse. The stories are mind-blowing like everyone says.

The universe, I'd learned, was never, ever kidding. It would take whatever it wanted and it would never give it back.

He hadn't loved me well in the end, but he'd loved me well when it mattered.

Writing can be such a lonely endeavor that I do think community is also important.Meeting at cafes and exchanging work and reading to each other and giving each other little bits of encouragement and feedback and thoughts, I think that's an incredibly rich experience because what it does is it gives you a sense of community but also purpose. If I know I'm going to meet you in a cafe next Tuesday, I'm going to write something that I can hand to you. Discipline is such a challenge for so many writers and so I think that that's a key benefit of being in a group.

You can't replicate walking 94 days through the wilderness by yourself with a really heavy pack until you do it.