A voice in favor of the complex beauty of female power
As spring slides into summer San Francisco and I are both in that betwixt and between place – windy, warm, foggy, radiant. I am not sure what to write about this month, so I am turning to the ever generous, ever reliable George Saunders again. His radical preference exercise was a delight. He invited his Story Club readers to randomly pick…
One of the tasks every new writer faces is filtering. There is so much advice available. What should one follow?
I’ve got a funny relationship with optimism and pessimism. After working in corporate PR for decades I’m pretty jaded about business and government leaders. When a CEO or anyone in government makes a stupid decision with painful consequences I’m not surprised or indignant. I just shrug. Of course that’s what happened . . . .
In July 2019 I wrote an essay in an attempt to answer a question so awkward that it made me sweat. In March 2020, not long after the pandemic closed us in our homes, I revised it. This month, reflecting back on March 2020 and thinking about what’s ahead in 2022, I remembered this piece.
Here’s a flash version of my essay Alone.
“Why didn’t you ever marry?” my dead fiancé’s son asked me, in a voice that sounded so much like his father’s I had trouble breathing.
Are there lessons lurking in what we love? What we really love to read, to watch, to listen to? George Saunders thinks so.
In his excellent newsletter/community/gift to the world, Story Club, he recently wrote a post on influences. Not the influences that make us sound literary and educated and subtle, but our real influences. He says: “When you were between the ages of 5 and 10, what did you read/view/experience that made you crazy with delight?”
He invited everyone following his newsletter to note what we loved as a child, a teenager, as we became adults, in five-year increments. OK George, I’m in!
There are lots of things to love about San Francisco. We have amazing produce, gorgeous views, fantastic architecture. And San Francisco is a great place to be a budding writer. There is such a warm, welcoming literary community here. The writers I’ve met in San Francisco seem to want “writing” to do better, which means that if you’re a writer, they want you to do better too.
Lisa Poulson, a voice in favor of the complex beauty of female power, was once a tech industry badass, a grieving almost-widow and a faithful Mormon all at the same time. Now a writer in San Francisco, Lisa writes about grief, love and the complex beauty of female power.
You are reading of your own will and choice. How you read, act on or don’t act on what you read here is up to you.
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Lisa Poulson is the legal copyright holder of this blog. Contents may not be used, reprinted, or published without written consent.
Lisa Poulson is a voice in favor of the complex beauty of female power, the descendant of fiercely resilient Mormon pioneers and a woman who survived the death of her fiancé four months before their wedding. Lisa lives in San Francisco, where she spends her time absorbing and creating as much beauty as possible.
You are reading of your own will and choice. How you read, act on or don’t act on what you read here is up to you.
While lisapoulson.com does use cookies, which helps us understand how you engage with our site and where you’re from, we do NOT save your personal information - like e-mail, name or address. And, if you join our mailing list or comment on a post, we will not share (or sell) your contact information. We are not responsible for commenters or other third parties here.
Lisa Poulson is the legal copyright holder of this blog. Contents may not be used, reprinted, or published without written consent.
