Carrie Callahan

All semester I've enjoyed the stimulation of intense learning toward my Masters in English/Creative Writing. The department is extra SF friendly and the faculty is great. Still, I haven't been critiquing or writing as much as I need to. And now I'm full of story. Those who have to write will likely know what I mean, but I'll try and articulate it anyhow. It's like there's a great, big, rough wooden door in my head between my unconscious/subconscious/imagination/dream-self and my outward/conscious expression. And right now there's a massive first slamming itself against the door: Knock knock knock . My veins are pulsing, there's a sheen of sweat on my forehead; I have to open the door. When I do, I know what will happen. There will be a tempest and I'll have to catch it in something: a glass jar, a story, a teacup. At first it's gonna be a mess, like a flood of tiny glass beads that need to be sorted by color. By I...

It's the middle of June and I'm not writing... on purpose . Now, why would I do that? Throughout college I complained constantly about my inability to find time to write my own work. Between writing mountains of papers and reading more books than I thought a brain had space for, there just wasn't room. I've graduated since (near two months ago now) and I'm still not writing. Why? I'm worried about my direction. While at school I learned a lot about writing prose. I learned about style, theme, dialogue, and various other nut-and-bolt bits of writing. I learned about developing a writing community, and helping others improve their work as they taught me how to improve mine. I also learned that "genre" fiction doesn't really have a place in college; even in the undergraduate programs it's the black sheep. My friends at The Writer's Guild were interested in writing various different genres, but rarely literary fiction. However, the books ...

Why I'm no longer afraid of Young Adult fiction I used to be afraid of Young Adult fiction. It's a strange confession, I realize, but it's true. YA fiction has quickly exploded across the literary scene like some kind of supernova made of easy words and entertainment. To me, this was horrifying. I saw YA as some kind of "low" form of literature - which is to say, not literature at all. It focused on entertainment more than message; meat more than nutrition; mind candy - all sugar no substance. Then the self-pub revolution inflated my fear swelled into phobia. I had a vision of a dystopian future where people only read "trashy" paperbacks and forever left behind the enlightening and challenging texts of the past. I saw "Idiocracy" for literature. However, upon further meditation, I'm no longer afraid. As usual, this irrational fear based on category - catergoryism, if you will - faded with education. I've learned a lot here at Univer...

A short winter and quickly ascending temperature find me back online at my blog. I was doing pretty well there, for a while, with three blog posts a week last summer, but a lot has happened since then. Namely: school. I am officially a full-time student at the University of Cincinnati! It should come as no surprise that I am majoring in Creative Writing, and doing quite well, thank you. I currently have a 3.9 GPA after my first quarter, and spring quarter’s grades should be up soon. This has meant an utter cease of blog posts because of the overwhelming amount of work required to be an “A” student. I don’t anticipate that my large workload will abate anytime soon, however, as next quarter is my most ambitious yet. I have a total of 18 credit hours plus an extra class for an RA position that I’ve applied for. Good thing one of those classes is Stress Management! Many other changes have occurred since last year as well: I have a new bike, I live in a new neighborhood and have a...