The Walls are Coming Down

In 1989, I sat in front of my television and watched in awe as the Berlin Wall “came down.”  I had visited the Wall two years before during my college journey across Europe and found it to be such an oppressive site. When it tumbled, it felt as if the whole world was being reborn,...

Must Artists Always Be At Work?

“I wish I could read your travel journals,” a friend once told me. “I bet they’re amazing.”  I changed the subject. Fast. She’d be so disappointed with my journals. They are filled with clichéd lines like, “the view was breathtaking” or “the mountains were beautiful.”  I’m a hard-core traveler. I like to see and do...

I’m Sorry, But I’m Not Embarrassed

In my industry, there’s been a lot of talk about Ruth Graham’s article in Slate suggesting that adults should be embarrassed to read young adult titles. Never mind the slights to YA authors, let’s look at what else she says: She argues that adults should challenge themselves with a higher form of literature and leave...

Good-bye Maya and Luana

Yesterday I heard the news that the incomparable Maya Angelou had passed away at age 86. Later that afternoon, I received word that one of my longtime writer friends had been killed in a car accident. When Maya read her poem On the Pulse of the Morning at Bill Clinton’s inauguration, a whole nation listened...

You Have to Own Your Art

Is it really this simple? You announce to the world you are an artist, a dancer, a singer, and, voila, you are. Yes and no. I was both terrified and exhilarated when I quit my low-paying job 22 years ago to become a writer. I didn’t tell many people at first. I had to figure...