Honorable Mention in The Hopper’s Prize for Young Poets!

In June, I entered The Hopper‘s Prize for Young Poets. You remember The Hopper, the Vermont-based ecologically minded magazine that published one of my essays in May?  This contest called for a chapbook, a collection of 20-50 poems by a “young poet” (under 35) who had never published a collection before. So I shuffled and … More Honorable Mention in The Hopper’s Prize for Young Poets!

Answering Blindness: A Poet Makes Amends – guest blog post by Emily K. Michael

Thanks to Trish Hopkinson for hosting my essay “Answering Blindness” on your fabulous writing blog! Trish Hopkinson Today I am preparing submissions for two local venues — an online journal and a quarterly print magazine. Each publication asks for a brief cover letter: Introduce yourself and describe your publication history. Introducing myself is easy. I’m … More Answering Blindness: A Poet Makes Amends – guest blog post by Emily K. Michael

Why I’m For Inspiration, and You Should Be Too

An incredible essay from blind poet and nonfiction writer, Stephen Kuusisto. Inspiration porn—the spiritual exploitation of disabled people—is harmful. But real inspiration is something we all need. Off the Page: Notebooks of an Occasional Optimist (The photograph above shows poet and nonfiction writer Stephen Kuusisto posing as comedian Marty Feldman. Kuusisto has pulled his sport … More Why I’m For Inspiration, and You Should Be Too

Access at the Outset

My last few days of calm are dwindling: the summer semester begins next Tuesday. I’ve finished my syllabus and course schedule, plugged in all the links and files on Blackboard, and gathered up the necessary textbooks. I’m putting the finishing touches on my Welcome Letter, a document I email to my students a few days … More Access at the Outset

Poem Published!

My poem, “Crushed,” is live in the June issue of Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature. Click here to read it—or listen to me read it for you!

Appearing at SAMLA 88!

Literary scholars, mark your calendars for SAMLA 88! The South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s annual conference is coming to Jacksonville in November—with the theme of Utopia/Dystopia: Whose Paradise Is It? And guess what? They accepted my workshop proposal! Michele and I will be presenting a fabulous workshop you won’t want to miss! Don’t believe me? … More Appearing at SAMLA 88!

Essay: “Working Resonance: Concerto for Guide Dog, Handler, and World”

I’m excited to announce my first publication in The Hopper, an ecologically minded literary magazine from Green Writers Press! Today they published my essay, “Working Resonance: Concerto for Guide Dog, Handler, and World.” Here’s how it begins: “In darkness, the audience rises, applauding the last performance of the evening. Before I can bang my hands … More Essay: “Working Resonance: Concerto for Guide Dog, Handler, and World”

Why We Still Need Literary Spaces for Disabled Writers

In spring of 2012, I was preparing to graduate with my M.A. in English. I was teaching with a respected professor and touching up my first real CV. Terrified of the great blankness that would follow graduation, I planned to teach, but I had no idea how I would continue to meet intelligent and fascinating … More Why We Still Need Literary Spaces for Disabled Writers

Exceptional Fallacies

At the beginning of my classes, I ask students to define rhetoric. I teach one of two classes—Rhetoric & Writing and Rhetoric & Narrative. And even students who have taken one of these can’t voice a handy definition for the term in the title of their class. They’re not alone. This is not an exercise … More Exceptional Fallacies

Mosaics Poet Profiles: Audrey T. Carroll

Audrey T. Carroll is a Queens, NYC native whose obsessions include kittens, coffee, Supernatural, Buffy, and the Rooster Teeth community. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Fiction International, So to Speak, Feminine Inquiry, the A3 Review, and others. Her poetry collection, Queen of Pentacles, is forthcoming from Choose the Sword Press. She … More Mosaics Poet Profiles: Audrey T. Carroll