Catching Days
is a blog about writing, reading, and life--how they meld, clash, and astonish. It's a net for catching days.How this site works:
One of my stories …
"The Empty Armchair" in Contrary MagazineOne of my essays …
"Childhood" at Numéro CinqOne of my reviews …
Heather Newton's Under The Mercy Trees in Contrary Magazine and republished by the National Book Critics Circle on Powell's Books Review-a-DayCatching Days is one of Powell’s Books “Lit Blogs We Love” !
Favorite Posts
Read with me:
The Forgotten Waltz
by Anne EnrightFeatured Blog: January
Little Shavings from My Ration of Light: Am delighted to discover Victoria's blog with its Tuesday Trifles and its 482 Reasons Why She Needs a Trust Fund. Check it out and you will be delighted too.-
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I’m @catchingdays on twitter…
- Thx, Allan! RT @AllanDouglasDgn #SouthernWriter @catchingdays A writer blogging about reading, writing and life--how they intersect, clash.. 3 days ago
- RT @sayrafiezadeh: My face on 2nd st. Reading my @parisreview story @2A. Thanks @fictionaddiction. Thanks @allisonbrower for snapping it ... 3 days ago
- New essay by @pam_houston @HungerMtn's The#WritingLife http://t.co/uzINbQfz & her new book pubdate 1 wk from today! #contentsmayhaveshifted 6 days ago
- RT @robin_black: Check out this great list of books you should know on @BTMargins feature The Page Turner: http://t.co/Vrcw73il 6 days ago
- RT @so_you_know: been up for a bit. can't recall sleeping. think was writing there too. woke up thinking about words. this time Saul Bel ... 6 days ago
Monthly Archives: October 2009
a practice
I was planning on doing a post on that need to write but then had the opportunity to write a Guest Writer article on the subject for The View From Here Magazine. It is online today with the print issue … Continue reading
Posted in craft of writing, essays, life, my writing, shapes, why I write, writing group
Tagged The View From Here
18 Comments
eucalyptus
I sit at my desk and write on this cloudy fall Saturday, working on this new story. Outside, the leaves are changing. But what keeps drawing my attention is this eucalyptus bush in the left panes of the window. When … Continue reading
Posted in catching moments, leaves, life, perspective, time, writing
Tagged The Mighty Oak and Me
4 Comments
12 keys to stronger writing from Annie Dillard via Alexander Chee
On Friday, I read the essay “Annie Dillard and the Writing Life,” by novelist Alexander Chee who took a class from Annie Dillard in 1989. He writes, “By the time I was done studying with Annie, I wanted to be … Continue reading
to be read
The books that sit on Lynn Neary’s “shelf of constant reproach” are “the books I know I should have read…but haven’t.” She borrowed this term from Luis Clemons, who chooses which authors to interview for NPR’s Tell Me More, and … Continue reading
poemcrazy
Poemcrazy: freeing your life with words by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge is a book I forgot I had on my shelf–a forgotten book. Every now and then, I will pull a book off the shelf that looks unfamiliar–an old book–and thumb … Continue reading
wildlives
In Wildlives, Quebecois author Monique Proulx creates a magical world out of the stuff of our world. Memory, silence, flowers, summertime, the lake–everything is alive. “The lake rose and fell and murmured beneath his paddle like a primitive animal mass, … Continue reading
Posted in craft of writing, first sentences, form, life, place, recurring images, structure, time
Tagged Wildlives
8 Comments
unfamiliar
For today, I had planned to write a review of the book I finished yesterday, but as I sat down to write, I realized that the piece of fiction I started on Saturday and continued with on Sunday and Monday … Continue reading
How We Spend Our Days: Adam Braver
Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” On the first of each month, Catching Days hosts a guest writer in the series, “How We Spend Our Days.” Today, please welcome writer … Continue reading
Posted in How We Spend Our Days
Tagged Crows Over the Wheatfield, Divine Sarah, Mr. Lincoln's Wars, Nov. 22 1963
10 Comments

“It’s hard to tell somebody what you mean to say. And that’s an idea that I’m obsessed with. It’s why I write. It’s why everybody writes.”
--Jonathan Safran Foer