Pat MacEnulty
- Location
- Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
- Birthday
- December 31
- Bio
- Writer and teacher. My most recent book, Wait Until Tomorrow: A Daughter's Memoir, is about taking care of my elderly mom. Published by The Feminist Press in 2011. I also give writing workshops on transformative writing.
MY RECENT POSTS
- We're gonna party like it's
not 1968
September 05, 2012 07:51PM - Sunday Sermon: Writing as
Spiritual Practice
March 11, 2012 11:22AM - The Fire This Time
February 13, 2012 06:53AM - Writing, Exploring
January 30, 2012 07:12AM - C-sections: Not Always
Necessary, Not Always Safe
January 20, 2012 10:12PM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “Such an important story.
The movie The Last Mountain
shows
just how bad it's
gott…”
March 11, 2012 11:26AM - “I worked as an adjunct,
freelance editor, writer, for
years.
Maybe 10 years.
Publ…”
February 13, 2012 07:09AM - “Thanks for the comments.
Matt, I agree with you about
the
potential for
overwroug…”
January 30, 2012 09:48AM - “Wonderful story and
testament to the power of
grown-up love.
I'm looking
forward…”
January 26, 2012 10:12AM - “Thanks for all the
thoughtful comments. Of
course, in a short
piece like
this I c…”
January 24, 2012 10:18AM
Pat MacEnulty's Links
SEPTEMBER 5, 2012 7:55PM
We're gonna party like it's not 1968
In 1968 I was in the eighth grade -- too young to be a part of
the massive student protest movement that swept the nation. By the
time I was old enough to participate, most of the serious
protesting had been quelled by the ignominious end to an unpopular
war. Although… Read full post »
MARCH 11, 2012 11:22AM
Sunday Sermon: Writing as Spiritual Practice
My definition of transformative writing is writing that seeks
to connect, understand, and illuminate. Although transformative
writing is therapeutic, it’s not just that.
Transformative writing strives for a level of artistry that, to
borrow from Faulkner, uplifts our souls. Transformative writi… Read full post »
I hear the tone of her voice before anything else. “Mom!
Wake up!”
“What?” I burst out of the cocoon of
sleep.
“The bathroom is on fire!”
It’s early morning. Still dark. I had just fallen back
to sleep. It had been a rough night… Read full post »
JANUARY 30, 2012 7:12AM
Writing, Exploring
This is a reposting from my Transformative Writing Blog: http://bit.ly/yk9Zlm
My friend Becky recently said to me, “The thing about writing is that all the things you don’t know about yourself come out.” This is one of the reasons I think of writing as spiritual exploration. We are… Read full post »
Ina May Gaskin, author of Birth Matters, is dismayed
by the high rate of cesarean births in this country, and in her new
book, she takes the medical community to task for putting
women’s lives in dangers by these often unnecessary
operations. About one in three women in the U.S. have… Read full post »
JANUARY 8, 2012 4:10PM
The Yoga of Transformative Writing
The following post is from my transformative writing blog
(http://transformativewriting.blogspot.com/):
I can easily remember the date of my first yoga class here in
Charlotte, North Carolina. It was Sept. 11, 2001. I had taken a few
classes here and there in the 1990’s back in… Read full post »
DECEMBER 28, 2011 10:58AM
Gestation is Part of the Writing Process
I went a couple of weeks without writing a post for this
blog -- or writing anything else, for that matter. I was tired and
there were some personal issues that were on my mind. I didn't even
write in my journal.
Writers tend to beat themselves up if they… Read full post »
Six months and a few days after my mother’s death, I
stepped into the church yard of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
in Edenton, NC, where she had once been the organist and music
director. I carried her ashes in a big Barnes & Noble shopping
bag over my… Read full post »
NOVEMBER 25, 2011 5:29PM
My Mother's Last Thanksgiving
The following is an excerpt from my memoir Wait Until Tomorrow. (In the book I include the recipe for Greg's awesome soup.)
Thanksgiving 2009. My husband and I have been separated for nearly a year, and my roommate Lorri, whom I met the previous summer, has moved in and become a… Read full post »
Forty years ago I was a 15-year-old high school junior at
Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida. I do not have
fond memories of high school. I certainly didn’t go to
football games or participate in any extracurricular activities. I
wasn’t in drama club, if they even had one,… Read full post »
Ever since I was the editor of a literary magazine in college,
I wanted to be not just a writer, but also a publisher of some
sort. However, I never really tried to land a job in publishing.
Instead I taught college classes when I could get them and worked
as… Read full post »
OCTOBER 27, 2011 7:16AM
Dear 53%, You Have SO Missed the Point
Look, for what it’s worth, I’m one of you, one of
the taxpayers. That doesn’t mean I don’t get what
Occupy Wall Street is all about. I know the FOX puppets have been
telling you it’s about lazy, irresponsible people who want
handouts. Because it’s always about lazy… Read full post »
OCTOBER 25, 2011 8:43AM
Your Cheatin' Pen
Last night I dreamt that my writing teacher, the late Jerry
Stern, caught me kissing someone I was not involved with. He was
going to tell on me, and I joyfully said: “Go ahead! I love
kissing different people.” It wasn’t till I woke up and
started thinking about the writing… Read full post »
“Is that her?” my friend Kim asked.
I stood up from the table and looked toward the doorway to the
restaurant. The woman who had just entered turned toward me and my
chest tightened. We met each other with open arms, and she squeezed
me tightly. You see before… Read full post »
OCTOBER 19, 2011 7:04AM
Transforming Ourselves with Words
A transformative writers retreat is just that: transformative. I held my first Transformative Writers Retreat this past weekend (Oct. 15 & 16) at Sevenoaks Retreat Center. I have given day-long workshops before, but this was my first overnight retreat. Poet Kim Garcia joined me to help lead seven… Read full post »
OCTOBER 12, 2011 8:04AM
Will Teaching Comp Destroy Your Writing?
I was reading a literary magazine called Burnside Review
and came across a story called “Subterranean Lovesick
Blues” by a writer named Nick Ekkizogloy. The first sentence
goes like this: “I asked permission to bury my broke-down
Ford Taurus by kneeling at Sandy's grave and la… Read full post »
OCTOBER 3, 2011 4:52AM
Writing Under the Influence -- of Ibuprofen
What are your ideal writing conditions? Virginia Woolf
advocated for having a room of one’s own. Some people prefer
writing in a coffee shop. Other writers have an office in their
home. Some people like to go to a residency away from the
distractions of their day-to-day lives. I know a… Read full post »
SEPTEMBER 23, 2011 11:43AM
Writing Retreat for Alchemists
One of my favorite quotes is from Saul Bellow in a letter to
John Cheever: “You were engaged, as a writer should be, in
transforming yourself. When I read your collected stories I was
moved to see the transformation taking place on the printed page.
There's nothing that counts really… Read full post »
Neither of my older brothers nor I have much in the way of
fond memories of our father. My brothers are 11 and 12 years older
than I, and they tell me that when I was three years old I was so
terrified of him that on the… Read full post »
This is an excerpt from my memoir "Wait Until Tomorrow":
Ever since Mom got back to the Sanctuary, she’s shakier than ever before. On Monday I go to visit her after my class. We sit outside to absorb some vitamin D, and then she says the inevitable: “I have to… Read full post »
SEPTEMBER 20, 2011 7:14AM
Getting Naked in Class
I teach writing at a career university where English
isn’t offered as a major, but all the students must have some
English composition courses in order to graduate. A lot of them
don’t really like to write. Many of them haven’t read a
lot. When they do write, it's often in… Read full post »
On November 27, 2011, my family and I will convene on the small town of Edenton, North Carolina for a memorial service for my mother. I think I will share this excerpt from my memoir with those who join us to celebrate her life:
When my mother lifted her hands, music… Read full post »
AUGUST 19, 2011 9:17AM
Transformative Writing: Travel Broadens the Heart
“My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same
poverty.”
-- Jorge Luis Borges
I am writing this entry from a school classroom set on the
outskirts of a squatters’ camp near Cape Town, South… Read full post »
AUGUST 11, 2011 10:27AM
In Praise of Writing Groups
A couple of weekends ago I spent two blissful days with five
guys and assorted other friends and family members at a beach house
in Alligator Point. The five guys were members of a writing
workshop I was in during grad school. I’ve been in a number
of writing groups over… Read full post »
JULY 28, 2011 6:07PM
The Kids Are Not All Right, Glenn
Glenn Beck compared the 68 Norwegian teenagers who were recently
murdered in a horrific attack to “Hitler Youth.”
Really. His rationale was that the young people were at a political
camp. He somehow finds providing a camp for teenagers that focuses
on politics to be “disturbing.&rdq… Read full post »
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