The Baltimore Writer

Rus VanWestervelt

  • Why Nobody Wins In The Ray Rice Assault Case

    Why Nobody Wins In The Ray Rice Assault Case

    Like so many other citizens of Baltimore (and football followers across the country), I am nearly speechless about the incident involving Ray Rice and his fiancee, Janay Palmer. As of this evening, this much is known. Two complaint summons were filed with the Atlantic City Municipal Court on Feb. 15, 2014. In the first summons,…

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  • What We Can Do In The Wake Of The Columbia Mall Shooting

    What We Can Do In The Wake Of The Columbia Mall Shooting

    Saturday morning, January 25. I am working on my syllabi for the upcoming spring semester, feeling pretty good at what I have already accomplished. I pour another cup of coffee and begin to look ahead at what still has to be done. Still so much to do, so much. So much. At 11:32 a.m., I…

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  • Mindfulness in Schools: Empowering Students For Success

    As we get ready to head back to school for the new academic year, I am aware of a movement that is sweeping across the country to make students and educators more mindful of their learning and their teaching. It is flying right in the face of high-stakes testing and assessment, but is it really…

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  • Mindfulness in the Heart of Baltimore

    Mindfulness in the Heart of Baltimore

      I don’t know if you have ever read or seen Ambrose Bierce’s “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” but yesterday, walking mindfully through Baltimore on my way to a photo shoot for my new gig writing for our local paper, I had one of those “occurrences” in everything that I saw, heard, and felt. If…

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  • On Being Creative: Living A Mindful and Inspired Life

    I have been in this cafe for a little over an hour, writing in my Daybook to the ambient sounds of chatter, the clanging of dishes, all blended with the meditative, hollow sounds of Deuter playing his bamboo flute. On these pages, I have written about singular moments I experienced decades ago along the marshy…

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  • Writing Strengthens the Soul: For the Present and the Future

    I say it all the time: Your Story Matters, and for so many reasons. Most of the time, the “Your Story Matters” phrase is something I tell people who want to write their story but are afraid to start. They might be afraid of judgment (more on this later about what assessment-driven writing is doing…

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  • I’m An Artist, So Pay Me, Maybe?

    Adam Byatt recently posted a piece about artists getting paid (or not), in response to a piece written by an artist named Amanda, who was responding to a letter that was sent to her by an artist named Amy. Adam, Amanda, Amy… All artists. I’m thinking of changing my name to Arus (and it shall…

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  • Why I Wrote — And Published — Cold Rock

    I am a writer, photographer, educator, and speaker. But more than any of those things individually or together, I am a strong advocate for all of us to accept the challenges we face daily and do our best to live an inspiring and fulfilling life. I wrote and published Cold Rock because I believe in…

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  • Are You Ready to Publish That Best Practice?

    This Summer, I will be teaching another graduate writing course at Towson University. The beauty of this course? It’s online, and it’s all about you. The Maryland Writing Project (MWP), which has been recognized as an exemplary site by the National Writing Project in Berkeley, CA, enters its 31st year providing writing instruction and its…

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  • Is Brevity Replacing A Writer’s Sensibility?

    Writers are being forced to think too much these days (I think), and they are facing a danger that is both very real and damaging to the relationship between reader and writer. Because of the changes in how we spend our time reading stories, not to mention how we read them in the first place,…

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