Category: ideas

Failing to flourish

All around me, life is flourishing. But my writing life feels like it is dying on the vine.

Here we are in the middle of April, and all around me in this part of the world I see dogwoods are in full bloom, the brilliant purple flowers of redbuds giving way to the new, tender sprouts of leaves, and the dreary, dirty browns of winter erased by lush greenery, from lawns to trees to fertile undergrowth. My unevenly green yard is bursting with the yellow flowers of dandelions, which contrast with the canvas of lawn like the radiant stars of Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

All around me, life is flourishing, as it should be in mid-April. But my writing life feels like it is dying on the vine.

Continue reading “Failing to flourish”

Friday Five: the end of Black History Month

This week I started reading Erasure, Percival Everett’s 2001 novel about how African-American literature is perceived and discussed in the literary mainstream. (This 2001 novel was adapted into the film American Fiction, which was nominated for an Oscar last year, and which I wrote about here.) I find the title of this novel especially relevant at this time of year, as the annual celebration in the U.S. known as Black History Month draws to a close, and as attempts to erase our nation’s Black history continue. At all levels of government, in schools, colleges, and universities, and in the corporate world, Black History Month celebrations have been “muted,” as Forbes puts it, due to a rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives and practices. One highly visible example: on the eve of Black History Month, newly appointed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth barred the DoD from using “official resources, to include man-hours, to host celebrations or events” related to Black History Month and other “cultural awareness months.”)

Continue reading “Friday Five: the end of Black History Month”