I was Tagged in a Game of Holiday Blogger Tag

Last week, blogger and author Debbie Siegel, over at
Girl with Pen tagged me in a "meme," which is funny word for a game of blogger tag. J.K. Gayle at Speakeristic had created a meme, and tagged Debbie.

These are the questions Speakeristic posed to whoever is "it": "Who are the teachers who have most personally influenced you and how?" This post is a public "thank you!" to them all..."

So here I go:

1) My first editor at the Village Voice, David Holmberg, gave me the confidence to love my voice on paper and shared with me these empowering words: "It takes three things to make a successful writer: talent, luck, and enterprise." Thank you, David :-)

2) The women's studies department head at SUNY Albany, Biologist Bonnie Spanier, who has helped to teach generations of young women to think critically. And my favorite political science professor in graduate school, Bernard Brown, for having us read Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. Through readings and discussion, both Spanier and Brown revealed the impossibility of objectivity. It is humbling (and, I would say, vital) for any writer/journalist/teacher to understand the implications of that idea...

3) The Writopia Lab and public school students I work with regularly who teach me a blog-full of insights every day. Thanks guys :-).


I tag:
Mark Wallace at 3PointD
Mia at Mint Jelly
Matt at Matt-a-matical Thinking
Eduwonkette at Eduwonkette
NYC Educator at NYC Educator
Lily Loring at Gotham Girl
Prof Jeff at The Linguistics Club