How to Enjoy Shakespeare
Today is William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. Unfortunately, far too many people have a poor introduction to Shakespeare, and give up on him too quickly. I wrote a guide on Medium to enjoying Shakespeare (hint, don’t pick up a play and start trying to read it). It starts with a story about a college professor on Jeopardy. Enjoy.
Announcing Hannah 2.0
We are very excited to announce the newest upgrades to Hannah, our most successful project ever. How fitting that exactly two years after her initial launch, we are ready to unveil Hannah 2.0. A lot of work has gone into creating Hannah 2.0. At times there were sleepless nights, and real differences of opinion about the direction we should take the project. But we always had the long-game in mind, and we think you’ll see our hard work paid off. Hannah 2.0 comes with a host of new features that we think the public will be really excited about. Everyone’s Read more…
Artist2Artist conversation with Marissa Meyer
Last month I sat down with the New York Times best-selling author Marissa Meyer to talk about writing, Tacoma, and more, for TVTacoma. It was a fun and likely conversation, and particularly because I have so enjoyed her books. (The Lunar Chronicles are a sort of sci-fi, steam-punk, fairy tale mashup that works really well, with very strong central characters in all of them. I definitely recommend them.) Here’s the feature: Talking shop with another writer was a lot of fun–so much so, that I’m working on a project that I hope will allow me to do it more often. More Read more…
A Dashed Off Post—My favorite American poet—Emily Dickinson
The last post with A.A. Milne’s poem Daffodowndilly has gotten me thinking about poetry again. Since it’s National Poetry Month, I thought I’d post another poem. This time, on my favorite American poet, Emily Dickinson. She’s a fascinating story: mostly unpublished during her lifetime and something of a hermit, she nevertheless wrote 1800 poems using the verse of hymns, which she broke up with her famous dashes. Fun fact, her poems generally share the same verse as Amazing Grace, House of the Rising Sun, and the theme to Gilligan’s Island—which means you can sing them interchangeably. (Amazing Grace does lose Read more…
Daffodowndilly
Did you know that an old word for daffodil is Daffodowndilly? What a great word! You can practically hear the softness of the flower. It’s a beautiful spring week here in Tacoma–the week after the Daffodil Festival, no less, so I’m thinking of spring and flowers. It also calls to mind a nice poem from A.A. Milne, much more famous for Winnie the Pooh than he is for this poem. But since it’s National Poetry Month, I think it’s very appropriate to share today. Daffodowndilly She wore her yellow sun-bonnet, She wore her greenest gown; She turned to the south wind And Read more…
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