Everyone starts out being an atheist. No one is born with belief in anything. Infants are atheists until they are indoctrinated.
For me, the genders are an essential element of numbers and letters, not something that could be removed from them.
The act of language or the act of denying language carries its own heaviness.
There's relief in white space for the reader.
Giving the reader the space to move around and be active, and encourage their active response is important to me. That will connect the reader more to the text.
Another obligation that I have as a teacher is to make available to students a range of options and devices and approaches, rather than saying "well here's one way to do it and that's the only way that's good. "
Even in so-called realist or conventional writing there can be defamiliarization.
Don't blame me. Tell your mom to move closer. Tell her there's this new club called civilization and you guys should join.
If you wonder how you'll get through this new heartbreak, just think back. Remember all you've been through in the past. And how each time you swore, you'd never get through it. But you did. And look where you're at now. This too shall pass!
Much of my writing has taken the form of a pilgrimage: to sacred places that represent the best of America, to musicians and other artists who represent the best of their art.
You just write about things that happen.