Whenever I write about my relationship with food and my mom, I’m always humbled by the number of people who send me messages to say they related to what I wrote about. My last blog post — a narrative comprised of several personal essays I’ve written throughout the years — generated a lot of meaningfulContinue reading “Comments from last week’s post a motivation to keep moving forward”
Tag Archives: Writing
Learning to heal from the loss of my mom, struggles with food
I’ve been writing personal essays about my mom for three and a half years now and am constantly reminded of how much I love to keep her memory alive through writing. Now, I’ve taken all of those essays and strung them together. I plan to build on the narrative so that I can eventually turnContinue reading “Learning to heal from the loss of my mom, struggles with food”
Why journalists misspell names & why it matters to get them right
Throughout the years I’ve gotten used to people misspelling my name. My late aunt seemed to spell it differently every time she wrote me a Christmas or birthday card, and teachers used to misspell it, too. In the third grade I started to write “Mal” on top of my papers to avoid confusion, but myContinue reading “Why journalists misspell names & why it matters to get them right”
Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Providence College’s Student Newspaper, The Cowl
Last weekend I spoke at the 75th anniversary of my alma mater’s student newspaper, The Cowl. The coordinators of the event asked me to write about how my experience as editor-in-chief of the paper helped prepare me for my job as a journalist. I talked about this, but I also wanted to explain why it’sContinue reading “Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Providence College’s Student Newspaper, The Cowl”
Twain’s Advice for Writing an Autobiography? Wander.
When I think about the memoir that I want to write someday, I often wonder: How the heck am I going to start this? I have lots of essays that I’ve started to weave together, but no definitive beginning. A recent NPR story on Mark Twain gave me some inspiration. A century after his death,Continue reading “Twain’s Advice for Writing an Autobiography? Wander.”
Helping Young Writers Find Their Voice
Today I got to coach two 9-year-old girls as part of a writing program for children at a library in south St. Pete. The goal is for each child to write a “book” by the end of the month-long program. There were about 20 students at today’s event — enough to make me feel inspiredContinue reading “Helping Young Writers Find Their Voice”
Talking with Jack Shafer about Bogus Trend Stories
Last Friday I talked with Slate’s Jack Shafer about how he finds the bogus trend stories he writes about and what he considers to be some of the main characteristics of them. I got the story idea after seeing a few journalists tweet about Shafer’s latest criticism of The New York Times’ trend story aboutContinue reading “Talking with Jack Shafer about Bogus Trend Stories”
Stories from the Past Couple of Weeks
Throughout the past few weeks I’ve gotten to cover some fun stories — about the new AP Stylebook, emerging trends at news startups, Helen Thomas’ White House briefing room seat and more. I’m happiest at work when I’m interviewing people and writing stories, so it’s been good for me to find time to carve outContinue reading “Stories from the Past Couple of Weeks”
One Week Later, AP Stylebook Users Still Talking about Change from ‘Web site’ to ‘website’
Last week I got a tip that the AP Stylebook would be changing its style for “Web site” to “website.” I knew the news would be big but didn’t expect people to be so vocal on Twitter and in the blogosphere about their thoughts on the change. Some disagreed with the change. Others thought itContinue reading “One Week Later, AP Stylebook Users Still Talking about Change from ‘Web site’ to ‘website’”
Stories about Motherhood, Childhood, Food & Journalism
I went through the articles I’ve posted on my Delicious page recently and realized that there are a lot of stories that have interested me lately. Not surprisingly, they have to do with journalism, moms, childhood and food — the subjects I like to write and read about the most. Here are some of theContinue reading “Stories about Motherhood, Childhood, Food & Journalism”
Word on the Street 