Tag Archives: Fairfax County Public Schools
You and Your Godlike Powers
I had a little fit of insight the other night while in my short story class. We were sitting around discussing how our first drafts had turned out. It was the final class—thought of by some as The Dread Reckoning—when … Read more
My Too Short Short Story Class
The urge to create new things—to create for creation’s sake—is one of those reliably redeeming human traits. When I think about ancient cave dwellers brewing dyes with which to paint the walls with animals, I grow fond of those cave … Read more
Ten New Writers (and more to come)
(After I return from Italy next week I’ll once again be teaching my adult-ed short-story class in Northern Virginia. Interested? It’s called “Writing a Short Story” and can be found on pg. 24 of this catalogue. Here’s a piece I did … Read more
Pick Six Great Movies
Whenever I teach my short-story class, I find myself talking about the movies. I’ve always presumed that my adult-ed students, few of whom were ever English majors, are less likely to have Flannery O’Connor in common than Casablanca. But there’s … Read more
Baby Bat Makes History
A couple of years ago, Susan Vinisky showed up in my Thursday evening short-story class with an idea for a children’s story about a baby bat who ventures out one night to hunt for mosquitoes and manages to get tangled … Read more
Kaze: My Short Story Class
At the top of the literary-industrial complex is the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop—in Louis Menand’s words, “the most renowned creative-writing program in the world. Sixteen Pulitzer Prize winners and three recent Poet Laureates are graduates of the program.”
TED THE CAT
Ted the Cat (1994-present) is a domestic shorthair blogger and vers libre poet. He also enjoys sleeping, eating, and lurking. Ted the Cat co-habits with Kaze,
also a blogger at 317am.net.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Kaze
Kaze is Washington DC area writing guru Steve Altman. The nickname is Japanese for “the wind.” Read more »
RasoirJ
Ras at Texas BBQ in DC, site of lunchtime chats with Kaze on the art and agony of writing. Ras is also known in some publishing circles as George Clack. Read more »