While mulling over my experience at the Vermont Studio Center and the ALSCW Fellowship, I keep thinking about the word routine. How important routines are, psychologists tell us, to our overall mental health and happiness. For writers and artists, I have found this to be true as well. It’s hard to argue that the development of a regular writing practice does not make one a better writer. What happens, however, when a writer’s routine does not and cannot include that practice for reasons outside of their control? What an awful place to be! And just the place I found myself in last year, before receiving the fellowship.
Author: M. A. Vizsolyi
M. A. Vizsolyi is the author two books, Anthem for the Wounded, and The Lamp with Wings: Love Sonnets, (HarperPerennial) winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Ilya Kaminsky. He is also the author of the chapbooks, Notes on Melancholia (Monk Books) and The Case of Jane: A Verse Play (500places press).