Top 5 Favorite Books?

Is there one particular experience that you draw on in your writing?

There’s no one singular experience, no. It’s usually a mash of a lot of things and they vary a lot depending on what I’m trying to say. Like a potato, a mashed potato of feelings and thoughts. With butter. I write potatoes, end transcript. 

Please feel free to send in any more college/ kenyon/ writing/ publishing questions! I have a lot of time today.

- c. essington

Questions? You should send in questions, I have five hours of being alone in a house, I can’t do homework the entire time without breaks. Send questionnnsssss.

(Especially about college, Kenyon, writing, publishing, books etc.) 

drawing excerpt.

“Ham and Starch” a short story by Claire Oleson

Slowly, with her voice pointed down towards the snow, she starts. “That we aren’t for the morning/ that we aren’t for house-fires./ That if you lit a match in your basement/ and it caught on/ and g…

I’ve had a short story published on the literary blog, The Whale.

I work here as an associate for the Kenyon Review and it’s beautiful and I can’t wait to get back to Gambier Ohio. 

Our office in the snow this morning.

Hi lovely, again, I am in awe of your beautiful words. I had a question though, if you don't mind. Do you have any tips for someone who is working on pursuing their writing more regularly? I used to write, but have gotten out of practice and am looking for anything to help me start again. Thank you!

Of course, thanks for all of your support. Tumblr's been helpful to me, I try to put up at least one thing a day, even if it's gross and not a thing. 

Calendars can aid one's efforts if you have a word count goal in mind. But if you're looking less for clerical things and more for inspiration, the best tip I have is to notice things, really notice things. And always have notebook to pin interesting tidbits to the page, this lets you have spare ingredients for stewing something together later. It's like a form of collecting. Also spy on people, not aggressively, but try to see them in a real way. 

When you eat, try to know how and why you're doing it and what's going over your tongue. When you sleep, pay attention to how you slip from yourself. You do not need to have fallen from a boat in a storm to write well about someone falling from a boat in a storm. If you've eaten a lime and fallen asleep I think you can manage to write it pretty well for a general audience. Don't be afraid to cross things over into areas where they seemingly don't belong, and try not to be afraid to look odd in words.

Ah, sorry, a touch long if you were looking for a one-liner. I am not Hemingway-esc, I spend a long time on little things. 

- c. essington

today the air is dim, oyster-shell dim cut through with sheens of rain, coming from far off, nearly off-screen, with cold signed at the bottom of every cloud-bank.

the sky is longer than the word it takes up or the words it takes down when snow happens in front of the billboards, the ads, going white.

                              - C. Essington

Excited to have a short story in the upcoming issue of Bridge Eight