Handed in my final PhD work at 3 a.m. this morning. The send button clicked, the file vanished into the university’s portal, and I sat there staring at the screen […]

Finished the first draft. Editing now. Raw, messy, maybe out of tune but full of intention. You hear the shape of what could be, even if no one else quite […]

Very close to a first draft of the book. I must print copies and get readers, objective people, people who enjoy telling someone like me what I did wrong, what […]

Over these recent years teaching I meet a lot of students who do not know how to play an instrument well but believe themselves great artists. Is that the Dunning […]

Some of the songs written by students whose first language is not English: You cannot boil the water without heating the utensils,You cannot break a rock without damaging the hammer,To […]

some linger at the end looking for a way to say goodbye more personally. it is very kind of them. weirder are the few failing that write me and ask […]

Student 1: I heard you practicing.Student 2: No, don’t listen, it isn’t finishedStudent 1: I liked it.Student 2: But it isn’t finished don’t listen to it.Student 1: I can’t not […]

student: I can’t read what I wroteteacher: why not?student: because it’ll piss people offteacher: that’s ok, it’s a writing class. if you piss people off so be it.student: I can’t […]

In my classes student write poetry or lyrics and many, for whom English is not their first language, make unexpected ideas in their writing I enjoy like this today, “I […]