Erica Goss is a poet, writer and instructor. She served as Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, CA, from 2013-2016.
Plenty, it seems. Ask any writer who’s been at the craft for awhile what inspires her and you might get this pithy answer: everything. Or nothing—“I don’t need inspiration,” says the truly advanced writer. “I can write a poem, or a story, or an essay, just by staring at the […]
I recently received an exquisite little treasure: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Poets & Writers Spill Their Worst Reading Experiences, edited by Richard Peabody of Gargoyle Magazine and Paycock Press. This charming book of flops and failures gladdened my heart, from its laugh-out-loud moments—i.e., Dinty W. Moore’s very first reading […]
“For her graphic imagination and her instinct for matching feeling to image, I chose Erica Goss’s poems. It is far easier to describe in language the push-pull and shove of emotional attraction than it is to locate and pinpoint the meaning of feeling in time and space. Put […]
I was twenty-six years old when I first read Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez’s National Book Award-winning account of the five years he spent visiting the Arctic region. It was a difficult read for me. I tried to care about a land that seemed not only distant, but harsh and […]
My life revolves around lists. As soon as I arrive at my desk in the morning, I check the list I made at the beginning of the week. If it’s Friday, I hope to see a bunch of completed tasks which I’ve been able to check off: “prep […]
This morning I dumped the chopped-up core from my breakfast apple into a yellow plastic bowl, added some leftover rice I found lurking at the back of the fridge, and then poured the extra steamed milk from the cappuccinos my husband made over it. After I mixed it […]
I’m trying not to be too hard on myself—as I revisit my New Year’s Resolutions for 2020, I’m saddened by how few items on the list I completed. Of course, no one could have predicted the chaos and uproar the Coronavirus pandemic brought with it. With that in […]
Here’s to another year of celebrating poetry! 2020 was another amazing year for poetry. Each one of the books I reviewed for Sticks & Stones moved me, from Abby E. Murray’s poignant descriptions of being an army wife to Nicole Stellon O’Donnell’s depictions of life as a teacher […]
When I first encountered Louise Glück’s poetry, I was trying very hard to make a garden out of an overgrown and neglected patch of forest behind my house. Redwoods shaded the area for most of the year, and when the sun finally rose high enough to shine over […]
I’ve always had small gardens, determined by the size of my backyard and the amount of sunlight it received. Some years ago, I discovered Mel Bartholomew’s book Square Foot Gardening, which I’ve used ever since. In square foot gardening, you divide your garden space into 12-inch squares, and then […]
...brought to you by Second Breakfast.
(a publishing collective supplement)
Daily Discussions of craft and the writing life
Creative Writing Tips And Advice
multimedia poet
Poet, Writer, Instructor
A Blog by Novella Carpenter
Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.
surviving schizophrenia
Thoughts on writing and reading
Heather Derr-Smith
Reading the classics, CanLit, and everything else. In bed.
A selfish poet
A Poetry & Literature Blog
The Student Newspaper of Los Gatos High School
Inspiration for creative folks like you.
Erica Goss 