by Katrina Vandenberg | Jun 3, 2019 | blog posts
Eight Steps Toward a Writing Practice I got my MFA in the era when you figured out this stuff for yourself, not always very well. When I timidly approached one of my professors about how to develop a writing practice, he looked at me blankly and said, “Write.” My...
by Katrina Vandenberg | Jul 26, 2017 | blog posts
Brian Doyle, Part Two of Two A few other fragments of memories of Brian: Once, I wrote him, asking to buy a copy of one of his out-of-print books, if he had any copies around. He sent me a pdf of the book within a few hours of my writing. Once, I asked him who his...
by Katrina Vandenberg | Jul 24, 2017 | blog posts
Brian Doyle, Part One of Two I wasn’t real friends with Brian Doyle. I had an active correspondence with him, but then, I bet a lot of writers did. Our e-mails stretched back maybe a decade. We met in person only once. Because Brian was so present in his writing, that...
by Katrina Vandenberg | Jan 11, 2017 | blog posts
The Internet Will Eat Your Soul Dramatic, I know, but I’m at least half-serious. Part of the reason I’ve been away from this blog for months is that I’ve been re-examining my relationship with the Internet*, and the news is not pretty. I’ve had increasing...
by Katrina Vandenberg | Sep 6, 2016 | blog posts
Missionaries and Hedonists My graduate school professor, Brian Wilkie, was a Romantic scholar. Each fall, he threw a big party at his house, for over a hundred of us — all of the graduate students, the faculty, and their families. He had a Steinway grand piano, which...
