Blog | Nicholsfrazer

Jan 15
7 min

Speaking Out: Destigmatizing Mental Health

Lecturing at the Bennington Writing Seminars in January 2019 It was two years ago this week that I first stood up in front of a lecture h...

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Dec 20, 2020
5 min

Finding Joy in Difficult Times

The Christmas I was thirteen my aunts challenged my brother and me to a sledding contest. Our elderly neighbors had a steep hill that the...

21 views0 comments

Nov 29, 2020
3 min

A Tether to this World: An Anthology of Mental Health Recovery Stories

The first book with only my name on it About eight months ago, as the global shit was hitting the metaphorical fan, I was on a ski/snowbo...

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Nov 23, 2020
4 min

That Time I Almost Died

I'm a proponent of marking dates to reflect on the past: here's where I was a year ago, here's that big thing that happened five years ag...

113 views0 comments

Nov 2, 2020
4 min

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

The first time I was old enough to vote for the President, I was spending a semester in Tunisia. I was living with a host family - B'Chir...

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Oct 30, 2020
2 min

Take Those Good Rejections Seriously

My cluttered inbox is full of rejections from literary journals. Rejection is the only way to get anywhere in the writing world. Everyone...

28 views0 comments

Oct 5, 2020
2 min

If Your Goal is to Try, You Can't Fail

"The only form of failure is not writing," Garth Greenwell said at my MFA commencement. I wrote that quote on an index card and stuck it ...

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Sep 27, 2020
2 min

Love What You Create

"Well, congratulations on getting this published last year!" I told my student after I'd read an old poem of hers. "Thanks, but now I kin...

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Sep 20, 2020
3 min

Judging Strangers' Most Private Pain

It's a strange thing, judging strangers' most deeply personal pain, but that's what I've been doing as I edit A Tether to this World: Men...

32 views0 comments

Sep 14, 2020
6 min

When Therapy Makes It Worse

After the manic episode a few years ago that I thought of as a break down ("Think of it more like a breaking open," my therapist said), m...

66 views0 comments

Sep 7, 2020
4 min

9-1-1: I Didn't Bring Enough Books.

I'm a reader. As a shy and awkward kid, I read at recess, and on the bus, and while other kids were playing and laughing and being normal...

36 views0 comments

Aug 31, 2020
4 min

In a Flash: How to Write Flash Fiction

In addition to being a reader for Literary Orphans, I'm also a judge for NYC Midnight, which hosts time-sensitive writing competitions. T...

17 views0 comments

Aug 21, 2020
4 min

Facing an Existential Crisis or, Attending an Artist Residency During a Pandemic

We were sitting in unstained Adirondack chairs, our feet in the Gihon River. My new friend, Victoria Sottosanti (Read her work! Seriously...

47 views1 comment

Aug 1, 2020
2 min

The World Needs Your Art Right Now

"I just don't know if my story matters during a global pandemic," one of my students said this week. She's writing a poetry collection th...

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Jul 24, 2020
4 min

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

I've done it again; I've way oversubscribed myself. I'm going to a two-week writing residency at The Vermont Studio Center and I've given...

15 views0 comments

Jul 16, 2020
3 min

How to Beat Imposter Syndrome

“The beauty of the impostor syndrome is you vacillate between extreme egomania and a complete feeling of: 'I'm a fraud! Oh God, they're o...

17 views0 comments

Jul 10, 2020
3 min

Being Politically Correct Isn't a Bad Thing

Trump criticized the Washington Red Skins FINALLY considering changing their unbelievably offensive name (for financial reasons rather th...

19 views0 comments

Jul 6, 2020
6 min

Reaching Out

It's not easy to ask for help. It can be hard enough to even acknowledge that you need it, much less find and reach out to someone who ca...

12 views0 comments

Jul 3, 2020
2 min

Holding Two Truths

I was talking to a friend this week who was having some issues with her partner and feeling conflicted about it. She felt guilty for 'com...

36 views0 comments

Jun 27, 2020
4 min

What It Means to Need

"There are things you need that I can't give you," my then-boyfriend-now-husband told me when he suggested I see a therapist for the firs...

39 views0 comments

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