You have to find a balance. You have to make sure you have time for your family, your friends, your writing. You have to find a way to make this job sustainable in your life. These words, spoken by the director of our program, have swirled in the air around me since I arrived in … Continue reading On the Fulcrum
The internet tells me that today is the tenth anniversary of the finale of Six Feet Under, a series which aired on HBO from 2001-2005. Ten years ago today, my first child--my son-- was 18 days old and I was a frantic, euphoric, sleep-deprived, love-swallowed mess. Nevertheless, I was not going to miss the final … Continue reading The Story
I am at the confluence today. With my left hand, I reach back and touch yesterday, the always-blue sky, bright sun, florid breeze of my son's birthday--his 10th on this earth. I fluff his hair, thick and unkempt, trace his still-boy jawline and poke my finger into his dimple, one more beauty mark. I remember … Continue reading Confluence
I took Josie to Target yesterday for some stealth Father's Day shopping. She takes holidays seriously. She starts to plan months ahead of time, thinks carefully about the person being celebrated, and chooses or makes lovely, thoughtful gifts. She gets almost excited about giving presents as she does getting them. I call her "The Keeper … Continue reading Father’s Day: An Excerpt
This is a thing my mother would say when she was trying to convey a sense of how she was feeling when there were too many things to do, and all of them demanding her immediate attention. Or, maybe when she observed me or my sister manically scattering our own attention when what we needed … Continue reading Like a Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
It's very different than my other work that you've read, that you've liked. You might not like it very much. You're probably going to hate it, actually. * Who the hell are you talking to? Family. Friends who are not writers. Friends who are writers. Colleagues. Ex-boyfriends. Former professors. Yourself. Stop it. You're poisoning everything. … Continue reading You’re Going to Hate My Book
I haven't been able to keep up with a poem-a-day pace, but this April has been extremely, surprisingly (given all of the other things going on--AWP, Conversations & Connections, semester end) productive and prolific for me. As of this morning, I've got 33 drafts toward a new project, about a fictional-ish character called "Round Baby." … Continue reading Getting to Know Her
For National Poetry Month, I am going to record some of my favorite poems and talk a little about what they mean to me. I hope you enjoy! https://soundcloud.com/sheilasquillante/sheila-squillante-reads-sparrow-by-caleb-curtiss Caleb is the poetry editor at Hobart, and a new friend. I picked up his book, The Taxonomy of the Space Between Us, at … Continue reading Loved Ones: “Sparrow,” by Caleb Curtiss
It's Monday morning, post-AWP, and I am limping, like a lot of writers I know, into the week after returning from Minneapolis and the wonderful chaos of our yearly shindig. Exhaustion spiked with that yummy pleasure buzz, the kind that comes after the second but before the fourth finger of bourbon (when it turns into … Continue reading Beautiful News: Love Fest, AWP Style
For National Poetry Month, I am going to record some of my favorite poems and talk a little about what they mean to me. I hope you enjoy! https://soundcloud.com/sheilasquillante/for-my-lover-returning-to-his-wife Just look at the metaphors in this poem! Each one vivid and still memorable to me, 25 years after the first time I read it … Continue reading Loved Ones: “For My Lover, Returning to His Wife,” by Anne Sexton
Sheila squillante 