Allyson Whipple

Tag: winter

  • The Best of It: January 2024 Edition

    The Best of It: January 2024 Edition

    1. Attending my first Mardi Gras ball
    2. Beginning my Tea Sommelier training
    3. Returning to writing practice
    4. Making butternut squash and leek risotto
    5. My nephew’s 4th birthday party

  • The Best of It: More Good Things About Moving Edition

    Records, tea, and my Mountain Goats wall
    1. Having a dishwasher for the first time in seven years.
    2. For the first time in my life, having a space where I don’t have to take into account anyone else’s needs.
    3. My neighborhood Buy Nothing group.
    4. Much better lighting in the new place.
    5. Being in walking distance of Monkey Nest Coffee

  • The Best of It: Some Good Things About Moving Edition

    1. Being in walking distance of BookWoman
    2. Being in walking distance of Nervous Charlie’s
    3. Being in the delivery radius of Ichiban
    4. Being a short drive from La Cocina de Consuelo
    5. Being closer to Emma Long Metropolitan Park

  • The Best of It: It’s Been a Heck of a Week Edition

    Pure comfort food
    1. Homemade poutine
    2. Homemade horseshoes
    3. The Democratic victories in Georgia
    4. Being 50% done with my semester prep 10 days before school starts
    5. Ordering fabric for my next quilt project

  • The Best of It: No Evil Edition

    1. Homemade fried cheese curds
    2. Snow on the prairie
    3. Having plenty of food so we can avoid driving while the roads are a mess
    4. Having a generator in case the power goes out
    5. Turning leftovers into tasty breakfast burritos

  • The Best of It: Christmas Eve Edition

    Astrid likes her Christmas shirt, but not the reindeer antlers
    1. Having time for blogging!
    2. Bernadette Mayer’s Midwinter Day
    3. Bernadette Mayer’s list of journal ideas
    4. Homemade applesauce
    5. Sitting around in pajamas until the afternoon

  • Goodbye, 2015

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    Out at Fort McKavett in October

    Greetings from rural Illinois! I’m out here enjoying winter break, organizing poetry files, and writing haibun. Next week, I’ll be back to the warm weather, kicking off 2016 with a road trip through Mexico.

    I’ve been too busy to blog this semester. I’ve even neglected my poor email newsletter. But I thought I’d pop in for a little year in review.

    2015 wasn’t without difficulty, but it was much better than 2014. I’ve had numerous friends tell me your 30s are your best decade, and this year, that’s proved to be true.

    This year, I successfully co-edited the 2016 Texas Poetry Calendar with Wade Martin, and helped host readings for the calendar around Texas. (I also had my license plate stolen at the reading in Houston, which was not fun.) I’m grateful I had the opportunity to be a part of Dos Gatos press and help continue the tradition of this great publication. Wade and I are already reading for 2017 (the deadline is January 15th!) so send along your poems!

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    At the Blue Willow Bookshop reading for TPC

    I also got to be a featured reader at the Austin International Poetry Festival, and met Nikki Giovanni on my birthday! 31 goes down in the record books as the best birthday ever.

    I was fortunate enough to get more teaching work at ACC, allowing me to make education the focus of my career.

    I got to attend a friend’s book launch in Chicago. I finished a new chapbook manuscript. I got to teach more poetry workshops.

    Last but not least, I began an MFA program this fall. The first semester is over and done, and I’m so happy to be there. I’m looking forward to school starting again soon!

    May the last day of 2015 be a happy one. Here’s to 2016!

  • Weekly Writing Prompt: Love Letter

    Write a love letter to someone unappreciated, disliked, or even hated: your dentist, the bill collector, the teacher who failed you in high school, the person at the office who stole your lunch.

  • Weekly Writing Prompt: Black Sheep

    When we think of the family members who taught us the most, wise grandparents or a loving mom and dad comes to mind. But we can also learn important lessons from those who were different. Most families have some sort of black sheep. Think about the person in your family who didn’t quite fit in with the rest of your clan. What did you learn from them? What could they teach you that everyone else couldn’t?

  • Weekly Writing Prompt: Forgetfulness

    Write a piece focused on forgetfulness. Perhaps write a list poem consisting of the things you forgot last week/month/year. Or writer a story or nonfiction piece focused on a certain instance of forgetfulness.