Creativity Archives - Lisa Shanahan

Reader, Should You Get an MFA in Creative Writing?

January 1, 2018 by Lisa Shanahan Leave a Comment

In Jane Eyre, one of my favorite novels, Jane gives us the lowdown on Mr. Rochester quite simply: “Reader, I married him.” Her momentous life decision didn’t take many words to describe once she’d made up her mind. This year I had a big life decision to make and felt how fitting to pay homage to Jane’s decisiveness: Reader, I’m Getting an MFA. Should You? LEARN MORE

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Why Am I Writing My Best Ideas on Scraps of Paper? How to access ideas in your “deep” mind.

June 1, 2017 by Lisa Shanahan Leave a Comment

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal describing the Morgan Library & Museum’s exhibition in New York of Emily Dickinson’s handwritten fascicles and poetry scraps gave me pause. I pictured the great poetess, as if in a film, in her Amherst home gathering up the closest scrap of “coarse brown wrapping paper” to write down an idea that had sprung to mind. LEARN MORE

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Writing on the Edge: “Ice, Ice, Baby”

May 9, 2017 by Lisa Shanahan Leave a Comment

If I’m writing or skating “on the edge,” that groovy term mythologized in the Seventies, then I’m aiming to put it out there with maximally cool, technical style. A worthy goal, indeed, for this child of the Seventies whose jams are writing and figure skating. LEARN MORE

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