Year in Writing, 2015

My tarot card for the year 2015 was the Hanged Man. My favorite new (to me) state was Wyoming. I had more feelings than usual. Here are some things that I wrote along the way:

“Have You Ever Thought About Killing Someone?” — A story about a murder and a murderer. And also how hard it is to be a person, especially if your desires are non-normative. If any desire at all is ever normative! Anyway, this one meant/means a lot to me.

“The Fault” — An essay about things that were obsessing me at the time: Gary Gilmore and astrology and the death penalty.

“Letter of Recommendation: The Death in… Books” —I had a difficult fall and I couldn’t stop reading these books about terrible disasters in beautiful places. This is me trying to figure out why.

“Evil Genius” — Dr. Michael Welner is trying to quantify evil, at least as it pertains to the U.S. justice system. The idea baffled and troubled me, so I wrote about it.

“After 19 Books and a Presidential Campaign, Eileen Myles Gets Her Due” — I went swimming in the desert with Eileen Myles and then wrote about it. The part where I dropped my tape recorder in the water, destroying it, after we’d been talking for hours and she’d said a million brilliant things, did not make it into the final draft. It was an amazing moment. Eileen was incredibly gracious and mostly just seemed to find the whole thing funny.

“That Drifting Place” — Roy Orbison and I both live(d) in West Texas and have terrible eyesight.

“How Wal-Mart Became the Town Square in Rural America” — I spent a long time in the Fort Stockton, Tex. Wal-Mart. There were pregnant teens and bored employees and even a crime!

I also went to a rattlesnake round-up in Sweetwater, Texas; hung out with George R.R. Martin and Meow Wolf in Santa Fe; and talked to ranchers about a proposed pipeline they’re trying to build out here in West Texas. And I was lucky enough to interview some incredible writers on the radio, too.

Thank you to the friends and family members who helped & inspired me during some tricky times. Couldn’t have done it without you. xox