A BRIEF HISTORY
I used to tell people that I was a recovered academic. That was a shorthand way of saying I spent too many years in graduate school, first getting an M.A. in history from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and then a Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
I moved to the West Coast and settled in Laguna Beach, California. While taking a series of writing classes at the local Community Center, I was fortunate to meet other people who wanted to continue working on writing. That led to the creation of Third Street Writers. For over a decade, we have continued to offer workshops, open mic, and reading events for our community. I am proud to be a founding member, former vice president, and current member of this group. I encourage everyone to find a writing community; it is invaluable to have the support of other writers.
I continued my education in writing by taking online classes, workshops, and seminars and participating in the Tin House Summer Workshop. These experiences furthered my knowledge of the craft and practice of writing, critiquing, editing, and publishing.
As an editor, I participated in an annual Third Street Writers anthology series, Beach Reads, which curated fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and photography on a theme, and Art Inscribed, an annual publication of ekphrastic writing. I was Editor-In-Chief of a quarterly online literary journal, Third Street Review, and currently serve as a Lead Fiction reader for Okay Donkey Magazine.
I continue participating as a literary citizen by doing the above while adding teaching and book reviews to the mix and always remaining open to other possibilities and opportunities.
First and foremost, however, I am a writer. So, I mostly write stuff that I hope other people want to read. I wish I had a pithy quote to share that could sum up all that being a writer means, but I don’t, at least not now. Watch this space -RP.
Here is the link for the current issue of Okay Donkey:
And, if you want to keep current, here is my Substack:
