My daughter looked puzzled when I told her I wanted to make Easter Egg Trees with the grandkids. "What's an Easter Egg tree?" And "Who ever came up with the idea of hanging eggs from trees?"
I do … Continue reading >>
WHAT?
I write across years, across pages, across oceans of memory. My poetry has been published widely in Canada and the US reaching a peak in 1996 with my poetry partner Linda Stitt in our book … Continue reading >>
Helen Peppe's memoir, Pigs Can't Swim, is a pinnacle of family dysfunction: funny, heart wrenching, stupefying and sometimes infuriating. Her parents' insistence on nonsensical rules, old wive's tales … Continue reading >>
Shirtail Relatives
My cousin says we should call ourselves "shirttail relatives" of Vampira. Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira, was born in 1921 in Petsamo, Finland. My grandmother, who was also born in … Continue reading >>
Most people are terrified to speak in public. As a writer who's read in more coffee shops and libraries than I can count, I was once terrified, too. Here are two of my worst moments, and 10 … Continue reading >>
Panic in a Suitcase follows the lives of the Nasmertovs, who emigrate from Odessa, for over two decades. The elders wonder if they made the right choice in moving to America while at the same time … Continue reading >>