Friday Roundup: The Inconvenience of Free Expression

Looking forward to: Teaching my first short story workshop at the Cabin, which is kicking off later this month. If you’re unfamiliar with the Cabin, it’s a local organization that hosts readings by well-known authors, places professional writers in schools across the state, offers writing camps for both children and adults, and much, much more. And they’re housed in an adorable log cabin right off the Greenbelt (see pic above). Stop by, join a reading or workshop, or show your support by becoming a member.

If a payphone rings in front of Best Buy and no is around to hear it…:  Equal parts intrigued and unsatisfied now that Siggy and I blew through the first season of Serial during our holiday road trips.

Scrambling to finish: Judging portfolios for the 2015 Scholastic Writing Awards (which I wish wish wish I’d known about when I was a younger writer).

On the heels of an incident involving masked cowards with little “egos” and big guns, a few words of wisdom from the late Christopher Hitchens: “...we on our side would happily debate the propriety of using holy writ for literary and artistic purposes. But that we would not exchange a word until the person on the other side of the podium had put away his gun… There can be no negotiation under duress or under the threat of blackmail and assassination. And civil society means that free expression trumps the emotions of anyone to whom free expression might be inconvenient.”