This is my last column for the Stater. And I think I’m only realizing now how much that hurts. This space has been, for me, a kind of sacred space — a clearing in the woods, lush with flowers. A quiet...

I’ve never yet had my own apartment. It doesn’t upset me, and after living at home for a year (something chronicled in a previous column), I almost forgot it was something I’d soon have to be hunting...

Whenever people would say — on roadtrips, Girl Scout camping excursions, hikes through the woods — “Keep your eyes peeled!” I would always grimace. It seemed to me like imagining a skinned grape,...

With her hands set patiently on the table, Natalie Shampay watches as her opponent, Ian Robb, scoops up his damaged Pokémon, promotes a new one, loaded up with energy, and takes a knockout, leaving him...

 With her hands resting on the table, Natalie Shampay patiently watched as her opponent, Ian Robb, scooped up his damaged Pokemon, promoted a new one, loaded up with energy, and took a knockout, leaving...

For spring break this year (Ah, a distant memory now), I traveled to Portland, Oregon, for the AWP conference — the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. On my radio show, my hosts and I, who...

Every time we go somewhere as a family, I know to expect it. My mother has her phone on her at all times, and it’s mostly there to be used as a camera. (Sometimes, when she can’t find it, that’s...

Whenever the end of March rolls around, the light glow of April just starting to peek out from behind the winter clouds, I think of The Beatles. And it’s weird, because The Beatles, generally, aren’t...

If you read my columns, you’ve probably gathered by now that I’m a commuter student. Like a lot of students at Kent State, instead of retiring to a dorm room on campus when the long day of classes...

 I’ve been closer than ever to the Cuyahoga River this semester. I never expected it to turn out this way, but when you’re an intern at the Wick Poetry Center and the 50th anniversary of the river’s...

 I think a great way to get to know someone is to ask them how they’d like to be buried. Why waste time with an icebreaker about favorite ice cream flavors when you could just dive in to a common, shared...