What Makes You Fearful & Deeply Uncomfortable?

Go out and pursue it. December 2, 2023 Dear Writers, Last Tuesday, I walked into a hospital room and found a man lying on the ground groaning in pain. It was up to me to figure out what was wrong with him and how to help. It turned out he’d fallen and had a horrific

50,000 Words in 30 Days?

Here’s Why NaNoWriMo Works for Me. November 1,2023 Dear Writers, First, a shout-out to my colleague and former personal essay-writing student Diane Gottlieb, editor of the brand-new anthology Awakenings: Stories of Bodies & Consciousness in which numerous storytellers weigh in on their relationships with their bodies and minds. I’m particularly interested in Diane’s new anthology

Replace–Or Deconstruct– Biased Kids’ Classics

A month ago, I made a pretty thoughtless faux pas on Twitter (remarkably easy to do, I know). A first-grade teacher Tweeted something to the effect that her kids loved the classic kids’ book Danny and the Dinosaur, but she wanted to update her shelves to reflect more contemporary picture books and easy readers. I

Graphic Novels and Nonfiction Totally Rock!

A middle-school teacher told me recently that he doesn’t allow graphic novels in his classroom. He explained that they’re fine for kids to read at home, but he doesn’t consider them “literature.” I beg to differ. Have you read Jen Wang’s gorgeously-illustrated graphic novel, The Prince and the Dressmaker? It’s an absolutely captivating modern-day fairytale

Gay Dads: It’s about Damned Time!

I grew up in the 1980s with two mothers. (I had a dad and stepmother, too, but that’s a different story.) In vain, I searched for middle-grade novels that reflected families like mine. But they simply didn’t exist. Today, middle school readers have Holly Goldberg Sloan’s and Meg Wolitzer’s absolutely charming To Night Owl from