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why writing is like air travel
I really like airports. Going through security doesn’t bother me. It’s kind of fun to hunt through the terminal for a chai latte. I find it satisfying to refill my water bottle at those little fountain things that are only at airports. I don’t mean airports are good places to hang out for no reason.…
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it’s not possible to make a mistake
There’s a scene in Kurt Vonnegut’s book Breakfast of Champions where John meets Mona, a woman from the fictional religious group the Bokononists. John acts shy at first, so Mona says, “It is not possible to make a mistake.” That’s the customary greeting given by all Bokononists when meeting a shy person, she tells him.…
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to reveal, or not to reveal?
“I don’t know whether I should write about my affair,” one of my memoir clients said recently. “Without it, the choices I made after don’t make sense. But I can’t imagine my ex-sister-in-law reading it…She might not forgive me.” This kind of dilemma comes up a lot with my memoir clients. They want to write…
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a beast in my soup
One afternoon I was having lunch with my friend Misha. We were gabbing about who-knows-what when she stopped and said, “There’s a beast in my soup.” I looked over and sure enough, swimming around her soup was a jade-green beetle. We erupted into giggles. “What is the other word?” she said, wiping a tear. She’s…
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the thing about peru
People often ask me why I live in Peru. For years, I’d give an almost-answer: “I like learning Spanish, I love the people, my friends here, the food, the history, the culture.” Those are all true, but they don’t add up to the full reason. Only recently have I understood the real “why.” * In…
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a sharpened stake
I used to think writing was a solitary act. I wrote alone, brainstormed alone, edited alone. Only on very rare occasion did I let it out into the sunlight, did I invite someone in. Partly that’s because I was shy. I didn’t think anyone would want to read what I wrote. And showing someone your…
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anatomy of a story
One Thursday in 2017, my arm began to hurt. Instantly I assumed the worst: I must have torn something, probably during silks practice. I put on a sling and refused to lift even a pen. The pain worsened. So, days later, I called my chiropractor to book an appointment. “What does it feel like?” he…
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ghosts of christmas past
“On the day she turned 18, she told her parents she was leaving for school, but then she hitchhiked to Mexico.” This was yet another of my friend Laura’s wild stories about her mother. “That’s where she met my dad, who was stationed there. They got married within a month.” “Geez,” I said. “Has she…
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to be a toddler
When I first came to Peru three years ago, I found a community of language learners: some learning English, some learning Spanish. I was learning Spanish, armed with high school vocab and an impressive Duolingo streak (250 days!). Yet it was not past experience, nor commitment to an app, that indicated anyone’s success. Nor was…
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saws and other writing tools
“If you’ve never seen a saw, then a log looks like a miracle.” Think about that. If what you want feels impossible, it’s tempting to conclude that it is. But maybe… Maybe it just seems that way because you haven’t yet found the right tools. Maybe, to someone with the right tools, it’s in reach.…
Kimberly Bunker, MFA 