Dispatches from Storyville

Category: Writing Samples

  • La Tricoteuse

    Neither the threat of a looming recession nor monthly economic blackouts can keep a real clothes horse down, so, at the start of Mardi Gras Break, I committed to doing less doomscrolling and more sewing. In addition to keeping my wardrobe nice and full, sewing calms my mind in a way even writing can’t. Writing…

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  • On Perspective

    A few days ago, Charlotte came across this quote by Toni Morrison and sent it to me. Authoritarian regimes, dictators, despots are often, but not always, fools. But none is foolish enough to give perceptive, dissident writers free range to publish their judgments or follow their creative instincts. They know they do so at their…

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  • The Cure

    The past couple of weeks have tested my ability to manage my course load, writing, working (or trying to), my contributions to The Resistance, my commitment to overdressing, cultivating community/a social life, and, most importantly, being a mom. There’s obviously the challenge of being present in Harper and Truman’s lives when I live six hours…

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  • Spare Parts

    Let me preface this: I’m not saying anything supernatural is happening here, but I’m not not saying that, either. But when I wish for things, sometimes the Universe cranks it up to 11. For instance, I feel mildly responsible for the current state of…<gestures wildly at everything>. You see, even as a wee Phelan, I…

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