Author: Dan White

Hi everyone. A couple of things. First of all, thank you so much for all your kind messages about my Washington Post Pacific Crest Trail story. Your messages mean so much to me. Even the comments were great. One of you even identified the fuzzy ant-like beings that kept me company along the trail. I didn’t realize that they were actually wasps, so I appreciate your entomological feedback!! Also, thank you so much for the advance interest in my personal essay and memoir class. Looks like we’re pretty close to sold out at this point, but please check back with this website soon for other seminars and classes. Hoping to schedule some more when I can! If you’re new to my writing, please take a look at the “other writings” page on this website for some stories and essays you can access. I wrote a book called Under The Stars,…

I’m proud to announce that I will be at the Catamaran Literary Conference July 26-30, leading a workshop group each morning (9:30 a.m. – 12:30p.m.) with up to 12 writers. Each participant will submit up to twenty pages of creative nonfiction writing for review by the workshop group. The writing should be creative in nature and may be part of a larger work or a stand-alone piece. The workshop meets four mornings (Mon.-Thurs.) and each participant will learn methods for revising their own work and will receive focused feedback from the group on their craft. This class will also serve as an ideas-generating machine for writers, encouraging a strong sense of play, improvisation and experimentation to foster in-the-moment creativity. Looking forward to meeting you and delving into your work!

To all my writing friends — this February I am expanding my Ideas Generator class at the Tannery Art Center in Santa Cruz, with all new prompts to bring out the memoirs, novels and short stories that I know are hiding somewhere deep in the La Brea Tar Pits of your mind. Last time around, we had a lot of fun with a world-building improv activity, a “street haunting” inspired by the work of Virginia Woolf, a Victor Hugo-inspired art and writing activity, and many other adventures. In February, four four weekly sessions on Tuesday evenings, I will be back with all new prompts, visuals and ideas for your enjoyment. This class is strictly generative, with a focus on mutual support and the free-flowing exchange of ideas. Registration info here. See new Tweets

Here is an essay I published some years back in Poets & Writers about a poet and professor whose tough-minded ideas about writing and publishing helped get me through a rough patch of writing. He told me about the value of pressing onward, and developing “sheer bloody-mindedness.” Hoping to see Professor Connor when I go back to Wesleyan for reunion next month.

I’m teaching fiction next month for kids 8-11 years at the Tannery Arts Center in Santa Cruz next month. We will have storytelling, crafts and fun. Students will leave with a completed mini-novel, bound in cardboard and hand-decorated. My daughter will be the TA. Sign ups here!  

I just found this vintage, water and sun-damaged picture taken of me on the Pacific Crest Trail. The lettering on the sign is almost illegible, but it says CAUTION: TRAIL IN POOR CONDITION. You can’t tell from the photo but the sign itself is in horrible condition. Though it looks like I am posing with my arms around the warning sign, I’m actually holding it up. When I came across it, the thing was lying on the ground. Anyway, I thought this was worth posting because I just realized that my first effort, The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind And Almost Found Myself on The Pacific Crest Trail, came out 10 years ago. Unless my memory is letting me down, I believe this photo was taken on the trail a few miles north of Tehachapi, on the same stretch of the trail where I stupidly dumped out my water…

Binging on books. Currently reading lots of them in tandem because I am indecisive. I keep adding to the list — New American Stories, and Gork The Teenage Dragon (hilarious; there is some loose-synapse creativity that almost made me drive off the I-5) Eat The Document by Dana Spiotta, for starters. Just got through a good, creepy oldie by Graham Greene called This Gun For Hire. Working on new things but it’s taking forever. Thanks for your messages to me, sent to my email account. I appreciate your measured encouragement. Meanwhile, I’ve put together a brief compendium of some recent freelance pieces.  I almost forgot to mention that I’ve been invited to be a panelist at an AWP panel up in Portland, focusing on travel writing, so please stop by and say hello if you are going. My only other news — I am working on a homemade costume. I am sick of…

Helping my wife ‘research’ her acclaimed ice-cream history book Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America, forced me to consume a dozen gallons of straight-up butterfat and almost turned me into a blob in the process. Researching this piece for the San Francisco Chronicle finished the job.  Now, my blobdom is complete. As you’ll see, I’ve included some recommendations in this new story.  Strange — I’ve pretty much stopped drinking beer (and every other kind of alcoholic drink) since this story came out. I’ve just lost a taste for it, at least for the time being. Maybe familiarity really does breed contempt. Anyway, I hope you like this.