by Carole Duff | Jul 1, 2013 | Writing and Reading |
Why do people become writers? The question arose during my Creative Nonfiction class at WriterHouse. One of my classmates, a clinical psychologist, said that people work for three reasons: money, career or mission. I wondered if one could work for all three reasons,...
by Carole Duff | Jun 12, 2013 | Local or Human Interest, Writing and Reading |
In a recent blog post, Patrick Ross pondered about talent – inborn perhaps – and skill, working on one’s craft. Why do we marvel at a person’s talent and not their developed skill? Ross wondered as he watched his daughter receive an arts award for the...
by Carole Duff | Jun 5, 2013 | Faith, Writing and Reading |
“Hi, I’m Carole Duff.” I checked in with the two women at the desk outside the Sister Helen Marie Duffy Center where I had taught in-coming Freshman Laptop Camps and faculty workshops. “Oh, yes, we heard that you were coming,” they said. “How long has it been since...
by Carole Duff | May 27, 2013 | Writing and Reading |
The night after the writer John Gregory Dunne died on December 30, 2003, his wife Joan Didion “needed to be alone so that he could come back.” “This was the beginning of my year of magical thinking,” she wrote a few years later. The Year of Magical...
by Carole Duff | May 20, 2013 | Faith, Family, Nature, Writing and Reading |
My grandparents, both maternal and paternal, lived in Hodgdon, Aroostook County in Northern Maine where folks farmed 6-days a week and attended the East Hodgdon Bible Church. On Sundays, it was essential chores only, and the women cooked in advance – we ate leftovers...
by Carole Duff | May 8, 2013 | Faith, Writing and Reading |
Several years ago, my mother gave me a t-shirt with a saying on it: When my gut says, “No,” my mouth says, “Sure, I’d be glad to.” Mother’s observation proved more and less useful: more because upon occasion I did have two minds, one thinking and the other speaking,...
