Author: Phyllis Root

Messy.The word has cropped up several times recently in connection with writing, thanks to a letter from a current student, a conversation with a Vermont MFA grad whose first book is about to be published, and an email from a...

TO DO LIST Today the oven doesn’t light, the dryer timer knob is broken, the car refuses to shift into first or reverse unless the engine is turned off, and my computer will not recharge. Lucky for me they put odor in gas, I’m...

The Writer’s Almanac this past Sunday quoted E.L. Doctorow: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”Recently I drove...

THE SAILOR’S WORD BOOK, a copy of which sits on my shelf, is crammed full of marvelous terms relating to sailing in 1867 when the book was published. Bran, for example, means to lie under a floe edge, in foggy weather, in a boat...