My Self as a Brand

January 10, 2019

These are some very personal reflections on the conflict between writing and the promotion and marketing of my work. I say “very personal” because the guidelines that I try to follow to balance the conflict may not be applicable to other writers. I have written seven novels for young adults, all published by mainstream publishers. […]

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Permission to Teach Freely

November 11, 2018

[Excerpt from keynote address: Utah Council of Teachers of English, November 9, 2018] It strikes me that the question, why do we need to teach literature goes to the question of what it means to teach freely and the answer to that question is a kind of spiritual answer. For me, the simple answer to […]

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Writing Without Anxiety

August 2, 2018

[Excerpt from Commencement Address to MFA Graduates -Hamline University – July 15, 2018] Writing without anxiety, requires the delicate creation of what I call a bubble of faith. This very fragile and flimsy bubble contains within it the conviction that the effort is worth doing regardless of the results. In that bubble there lies the […]

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