by Deborah Quinn | Mar 25, 2014 | Books, family, Kids, marriage, Parenting, pop culture, ranting
…and when did “parenting” become a verb, anyway? Time was, back in the day, a parent was a noun, and what you did was “raise” kids or “try not to drown” kids or “don’t lose the kids in the mall.” But those...
by Deborah Quinn | Feb 10, 2014 | Abu Dhabi, Books, writing
Last year, at the tender age of 49, I was delighted to be included in two fantastic anthologies: You Have Lipstick on Your Teeth, edited by the brilliantly funny Leslie Marinelli of The Bearded Iris and In The Powder Room; and The Herstory Project, edited by the...
by Deborah Quinn | Jan 18, 2014 | Abu Dhabi, aging, Books, growing up, The National, Travel
You know how when you get an email or a phone message that you probably should return quickly, and then you don’t, and then the longer it goes the harder it feels to return the call? So that what would’ve been a quick little note or a short conversation...
by Deborah Quinn | Dec 6, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, Books, expat, Feminism, reading, UAE, writing
It’s been a big week out here in the ‘Dhabs, I have to say, starting with the Rain Day two weeks ago. What is this “rain day,” you ask? Well, my dears, that’s when the serene desert skies bust open and it pours, like a veritable...
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 16, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, Books, environment, NaBloPoMo, UAE, Uncategorized, urban nature
I have a garden, which I’ve wanted for years. In New York I had to be satisfied with window boxes and urban tomatoes (they look pretty but oh, those airborne carcinogens, especially if the tomatoes in question grew fourteen stories above a 14th street bus...
by Deborah Quinn | Nov 13, 2013 | Books, Education, language, NaBloPoMo, reading, teaching, writing
I spent about six weeks this semester teaching and talking about poetry with my students. Almost to a person, they started the term with “eh…I don’t much like poetry,” and “I don’t get poetry,” and “what the hell is...