Editor's Note: This essay will serve as a lead-in to a series on Wang Ping's personal experiences with Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and the...
The Making of Axe Handles
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“Language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.”
—Octavio Paz
THE SUPER POWER OF
LANGUAGE
TOPICS
Social Impact, testimony to reading and writing
- STEAM
- Dyslexia
- Learning disabilities
- Outreach to kids
- Literacy and EASL
- Veterans
- Quality Writing
- Award-Winning Writers
- Health and Writing
- Seniors
- Riff Causeway (e.g., Libraries Under Siege, Indie Bookstores vs. Amazon, etc.)
The Practice of Poetry
The first poem I ever wrote that was worth a damn -- and possibly the only one – grew out of the awfullest cliché most of us will encounter –...
Riffing on Riff
This post is Riff’s 50th. We’ve only been around since late October of 2020, but already have posted some “Greatest Hits” with topics ranging from...
Plate Tectonics
“We can’t always ask our students to take off the armor at home, or even on their way to school, because their emotional and physical safety may...
Humanity’s Super Power – Part I
Writers at Large (W@L) came to me by climbing through the basement window—not walking through the front door. Three highly unlikely, unrelated,...
(Call Me) Robin
NCTE blogger, Millie Davis, recently invited writers to explore the topic: "Writers Riffing on Why Books Save Lives,”...
LIFE Coach: A Literary Exchange Between NICK CARBÓ and RICK MOODY
This stirring exchange between two gifted wordsmiths, one a poet and the other a novelist, shows how the power of language can easily usher a centuries-old epistolary style into the digital age with intimacy and grace.
Five Children and Me
In December 1960, when I was six and a half, my paternal grandmother, whose beautiful given name was Feliciana, gave me a book for Christmas....
Riffing on How Books Save Lives
I knew innately that books saved lives, that kids were up to reading books that adults often complained about, and that kids benefit greatly from those books. But I needed proof.
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