April Davila - Author
With a heading like that, it's kind of hard not to picture 142 ostriches each celebrating their birthday. Did you know ostriches grow to their full height of about 10 feet in their first year? Now you know. But that's not what I'm celebrating. I am, … [Continue reading] about Happy Birthday to “142 Ostriches”
I just wrapped up a COVID-style, week-long, at-home writing retreat and (just to push how many hyphenates I can fit in one sentence) I got a s*it-ton of writing done. It was kind of last minute. I was lamenting, to my husband, how slow my progress … [Continue reading] about An At-Home Writing Retreat
If you follow along, you know I've been hosting daily writing groups with my Mindful Writing Community. If you've attended any of my recent meetings, you've probably heard some discussion of writing longhand. On the downside, anything written in … [Continue reading] about Longhand For Writers
I read 68 books this year (and counting). Of those, 10 works stand out in my mind as being particularly great reads. These are the books that stayed with me, made me think back on them long after I’d finished them. They are the books I’m telling my … [Continue reading] about The Best Books I Read in 2020
I've always shied away from anything that could be counted as a personal essay. There was always this little voice inside my head insisting that nobody wanted to hear about my life. I could make up stories, fine, yes, but to share actual truth? Why … [Continue reading] about Braving the Personal Essay
As has become a Thanksgiving tradition on this blog, I’d like to share a poem. This one is called The Blow, by Pablo Neruda. The Blow Ink that enchants me, drop after drop, guarding the path of my reason and unreason like the hardly visible … [Continue reading] about A Thanksgiving Poem: The Blow
One of my biggest pet peeves in writing workshops is offering feedback on a story to a fellow student and hearing the phrase "yeah, I kind of knew that." Every time I have this interaction (and I feel like it has happened at least once in every … [Continue reading] about Don’t Waste Your Feedback Reads