The Gulf Coast Blog

Craft • Culture • News

Craft • Culture • News

Wanting It, A Review

Luisa Muradyan

Enough cannot be written about desire. Desire will not let us hold or master it. Instead, we are both lucky and pained to dwell in its atmosphere, an atmosphere changing so quickly we would need an atomic clock to trace its movements. Anne Carson’s Eros…


The Parent Trap & Other Potential Pitfalls of Writing What You Know

Robin Black

There isn’t much about parenting that I don’t know. Mothering, specifically. A caveat though: I mean, mothering with a good dose of privilege, including financial security. But within that fortunate realm, I have been at this mothering thing more than…


What’s Love Got To Do With It

Robin Black

Hi All, When Gulf Coast Journal and I put together this plan, the idea was always for me to run some “vintage” posts. And today is my first. See you with new material again on Thursday! Robin In 1993, my first marriage failed – eight years and two children…


One of the Most Difficult Things About This Career. . .

Robin Black

. . . is. . . The Success Gap. I have learned to avoid absolutes, so I won’t say that I don’t know a single writer who isn’t fully aware of who among their social circle has achieved more than they, but I will say, I have met precious few who don’t have…


Workshopping Reality, Imagined and Otherwise

Robin Black

Last week I read an article about reality, a physics theory I cannot even pretend to understand.  The degree to which I don’t understand it is itself kind of enjoyable, an intellectual free fall without a net. Not that being baffled is a rare experience…


Agoraphobia, Writing, and Me: Fear and Laughing at Canyon Ranch

Robin Black

Dear All, It’s an enormous honor and joy to be the Guest Blogger here for February. I’ve known about this for a while. Not long enough to have done anything smart like stock-piling posts, but long enough to ponder what I think the point of having a single…


Chances Dances – Magic as a Survival Tactic

Luisa Muradyan

Italicized, in a font distinct from the rest of the cover text, “you are invited” had me thinking “garden party,” or actually, just “party.” Literal in my following of this theme, I found my afternoon session: “Party Out of Bounds”...