I was eight and journaling and writing bad poetry. I didn’t think then about “being a writer”; I just was one.
For me, fleshing out ideas and revising my work are the most frustrating and correspondingly rewarding aspects of writing.
Really, everything. But the most gratifying aspect of teaching is seeing writers take feedback and make it their own, and seeing their work improve as a result.
On Becoming a Novelist, by the late John Gardner, and Hold the Dark, by William Giraldi.
“Craft enables art.” From Steering the Craft, by Ursula Le Guin.
Madelin Parsley grew up in the panhandle of Nebraska. She holds an M.F.A. in fiction from Vanderbilt University, and her short stories have appeared in Ploughshares and Narrative Magazine. She’s currently working on a novel about five siblings, two small towns, and a family dynamic that is shaped and reshaped
Instructor Michael Belanger is an author and high school history teacher. His debut novel, The History of Jane Doe, was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award and received a Kirkus starred review. More recently, his writing has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Pigeon Review, Bright Flash Literary Review, and the 2025 Connecticut Literary Anthology.
