Each morning at the local YMCA where I work out, a group of retired men gather at a table to drink coffee and to express their strong opinions about everything under the sun. They’re certain about their beliefs, too certain it seems to me. I have a hard time trusting those who believe they know…

’Tis the season for March Madness. The NCAA basketball tournament is in full swing, leading to the championship game and the annual commemoration of this athletic competition, the song, “One Shining Moment”: “That one shining moment you reached deep inside/One shining moment, you knew you were alive.” I can think of no graceful segue from…

I was very fortunate to be on a panel celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the fabulous online journal, Brevity, at this year’s Associated Writing Programs conference. I joined Beth Ann Fennelly, Daisy Hernandez, Heather Sellers, Ira Sukrungruang, and founding editor Dinty Moore for a reading of flash creative nonfiction and some thoughts on the genre…

Sundays in my childhood home were usually days of quiet and peace. The sounds of such surrounded us. In the summer, I listened to the whirr of an oscillating fan that took its time pivoting back and forth. Its breeze lifted the corner of the pages of a Life magazine on the coffee table. My…

I write for a number of reasons, but chief among them is the fact that something in my past or in my imagination or in the world around me requires my attention. More and more, I’m convinced that the ability to pay attention is the most important skill a writer can have. “Try to be…

I had the privilege of talking to students in the AVID Program at Boyd High School in McKinney, Texas, last week. AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. The program is “a college readiness program that targets students with the potential of attending college who are not enrolled in advanced classes.” It helps prepare students…