Author Archives: allisongreenwriter

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About allisongreenwriter

Author of The Ghosts Who Travel with Me, a memoir, and Half-Moon Scar, a novel.

Bill Knott, 1940-2014

Posted on April 12, 2014 by allisongreenwriter

What was it about those bad-boy poets that I loved so much at 16? Brautigan, Ferlinghetti. And Bill Knott, whose recent death made me think about him and how our paths crossed, twice. The first time, I was a high … Continue reading →

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I took my empty book bag to the writing conference that was here in Seattle recently, and I wandered through the book fair and scooped up free tortilla chips at the receptions and waved at my friends across the crowded … Continue reading →

Posted on March 18, 2014 by allisongreenwriter | Leave a comment

Doris Lessing, 1919-2013

Posted on January 29, 2014 by allisongreenwriter

“I keep four notebooks, a black notebook, which is to do with Anna Wulf the writer; a red notebook, concerned with politics; a yellow notebook, in which I make stories out of my experience; and a blue notebook which tries … Continue reading →

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Ornaments

Posted on December 24, 2013 by allisongreenwriter

After my grandmother died in 1994, my girlfriend-at-the-time and I went to my grandfather’s house to help him decorate his Christmas tree. We brought the boxes of ornaments up from the basement and unwrapped the wads of tissue paper. There … Continue reading →

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Singing in English

Posted on November 13, 2013 by allisongreenwriter

I never doubted that English belonged to me. Even the most convoluted academic English, studded with the hegemonies, dichotomies, and Foucaultisms of my graduate literary theory seminars, seemed available for my use. I believed that, with practice, I could wield … Continue reading →

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New Publication: An Essay in Defunct

Posted on October 2, 2013 by allisongreenwriter

I’m pleased to have an essay, “Séance,” in the very cool online journal Defunct. It’s about John F. Kennedy, the March on Washington, and other 1960s phenomena. Thanks to editor Amy Butcher for her excellent suggestions.

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Will the Circle Be Unbroken

Posted on September 18, 2013 by allisongreenwriter

Shortly after our wedding this month, Arline and I spent some time on the Oregon coast. Every day Arline would ask me: “Are you going to wear your ring to the beach?” Yes, I would say. “Are you going to … Continue reading →

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Summer

Posted on August 19, 2013 by allisongreenwriter

Every summer of my childhood, our family climbed into the 1972 copper-colored Valiant and traveled from Green Bay, where my father was teaching at the university, to the Pacific Northwest, where my grandparents lived. There was no air conditioning; we … Continue reading →

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Another Birthday

Posted on July 22, 2013 by allisongreenwriter

What saddens me is that I missed the first forty-five of Arline’s birthdays. I missed the debutante party that Arline didn’t even want but for which she gamely wore her hair in a tower. I missed her first birthday in … Continue reading →

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A Birthday

Posted on June 27, 2013 by allisongreenwriter

My mother remembers me playing on the floor of our living room and looking up at her: “I’m three!” I wasn’t quite three yet, but she didn’t contradict me. This story is about a little girl who loves her birthday, … Continue reading →

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