ARCHIVE
March 19, 2024
I am already dreading the eclipse. I am awed by it, of course. Awed that it will roll across the United States, arriving in the Finger Lakes in the mid-afternoon and then continuing on its path into Canada. Where
By Susan Dixon
February 12, 2024
“You will hurt,” the review promised. “Vietnam hurt us.”
Getting out of town
By Susan Dixon
December 30, 2023
Two years ago I decided to do a self-guided writing retreat in the off-season at an artist residency center. My own space, my own time, alone, just me and my writing. I didn’t even want to negotiate the shared
By Susan Dixon
December 21, 2023
Dorie Greenspan has a classic recipe for the perfect cookie that she got from Pierre Hermé. It’s basically a French sablé but like an American chocolate chip cookie, it is made with both white and brown sugar. It’s got
By Susan Dixon
December 11, 2023
- The holidays are over.
- No one expects anything of you.
- It’s dark.
- No social obligations.
- Hygge.
- It’s quiet.
- There are still some cookies left.
By Susan Dixon
December 3, 2023
As soon as we arrived in St. Petersburg, Florida, in the early 60s, my parents went “church shopping,” visiting Methodist churches one after another. Things went awry every time. One church didn’t have a Sunday School. The minister at
By Susan Dixon
September 24, 2023
The last three times I have traveled it was to Vietnam. I prepared in all the usual ways—passport, suitcase organization, contingency plans—and I used Rosetta Stone and/or Duolingo to study the language. I had no illusions that I would
By Susan Dixon
August 7, 2023
My writing group, The Pen and the Sword, considers topics related to any war, but the Vietnam War in particular. Our theme at the moment is After War—the ways in which cultures, communities, individuals leave war behind and transition
By Susan Dixon
July 14, 2023
I used to think, because this is how I was trained—in high school, in college, in grad school, in life—that I had to have a Theme. If I wanted to host a blog/website/discussion/writing space, it had to have a
By Susan Dixon
June 26, 2023
You’d think, after giving it more than 50 years, that we, the Vietnam War Generation, would have managed to make some sense of it. Fifty years worth of education, life experience, technical skill, hobbies, travel, social engagement—all those things
By Susan Dixon
“It’s Imbolc,” I say, brightly. “The first day of spring. In the Celtic calendar.”
Getting out of town