by Deborah Quinn | Mar 26, 2014 | aging, Education, Feminism, Gender, Politics
Gloria Steinem spoke at my college graduation back in 1986. At the time, as a graduate of a woman’s college, I thought to myself “oh good lord, her. Couldn’t they find someone more relevant?” It was the era of “divest now” and...
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...
by Deborah Quinn | Oct 5, 2013 | Abu Dhabi, Education, Feminism, Gender, me my own personal self, teaching, writing
Next week I am teaching Virginia Woolf’s brilliant and amazing essay A Room of One’s Own. So on my list of “to do” for the weekend is this note, jotted down while I was in a meeting: “find a way in to Room.” Indeed. Of course, what...
by Deborah Quinn | Aug 26, 2013 | Education, NaBloPoMo, NYC, Politics
One story: this semester, I teach two sections of the same class. One class meets at 930AM and has sixteen students, all of whom are native English speakers. The students are lively (probably stoked on the morning coffee); they seem to keep up with the reading. The...
by Deborah Quinn | Sep 10, 2012 | Education, language, teaching, writing
I came back from summer vacation revving with ideas about writing projects. My mind bubbled with book proposals, blog posts, novel revisions, pitches for magazine articles. Words and ideas tumbled around in my head like socks in the spin cycle. I was on fire, people,...