The National Herald featured me! In the article, I talk about “dead” languages, that great Greek roadtripper Homer, and Scripps College.
Yiasou!
Stephanie Nikolopoulos is a writer, editor, writing teacher, and speaker based in New York City.
She is the author with Paul Maher Jr. of "Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road.'"
She's also currently working on a memoir about growing up Greek American.
You can email her at stephanie_701 {@} yahoo.com
I'm still basking in the afterglow of my creative retreat over Memorial Day weekend! I felt more focused and more productive at my day job because I took that time to nourish my creative soul. I'm still managing to squeeze in a little more inspiration. This morning I took Donald Miller's webinar "5 Keys to a Fulfilling Life Plan," and tonight I'm taking a virtual yoga class. I want more, though! Send me your favorites documentaries about artists and writers, the lit mag you think everyone should read, the weird thing you do to get your creative juices flowing, the title of the book that made you want to become a writer, the virtual classes you're investing in right now.
As part of our creative retreat this weekend, I explored the culinary arts by trying out some new recipes::: homemade mushroom pizza, the spiciest ever Buddha bowl, spinach-artichoke dip, Dalgona coffee made with oat milk, several varieties of chocolate chip cookies, and cheese enchiladas a la Jenny. I know a lot of people find cooking therapeutic and that there's a lot of pandemic baking going on these days. I don't mind cooking, but if there's one thing this creative venture taught me it's that I do not find cooking relaxing. It's exhausting. Still, I am pretty proud of myself, as it all came out delicious! I spent the rest of the day reading on the couch. It felt refreshing and inspiring to consume art rather than create it, and I'm now feeling invigorated from this mini retreat and ready to write. I think going forward, I want to devote one night a week to some sort of creative play. The poetry cut-ups, "The Creative Brain" documentary, the culinary experimentation, and the glorious gardens BBC show I watched each touched different parts of my brain, giving me new ideas and refreshing my creative soul.
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#culinaryarts #creativeretreat #diyretreat #writingretreat #creativeself #creativebrain #howtobecreative #artisticexpression #dalgonacoffee #spicyfoodlover #maketimeforarteveryday #findtimetorelax #trysomethingnew #creativeplay #artisticexperiment #makesomethingbeautiful #exploringthearts #artathomechallenge
I am thankful for the men and women who lost their lives serving to protect the United States, and I am thankful for their families and those who served with them.
On day #2 of my creative retreat, I used William S. Burroughs' Cut-up Method to place some playful restraints on my writing. I cut up old People magazines and resurrected them into poems. :::
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#williamsburroughs #cutuppoetry #peoplemagazine #wordplay #writingexercise #beatgeneration #cutupmethod #cutuptechnique #athomewritingretreat #diyprojects #diywritingretreat #diyretreat #amwritingpoetry #howtobemorecreative #seepoetry #magneticpoetry #poetryiseverywhere #writingretreat #writingpromptsandtips #imaginationplay #playfulpoetry
The best writers are avid readers. Reading isn't just about subject matter. It's about style. It's about admiring and learning from the craftsmanship of a beautifully constructed sentence, a well-chosen narrator, or a circling back in the story structure. You can read a thousand love stories, and each is unique. Each meet cute. Each devastating heartbreak. Each sacrifice. :::
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#lisasee #writersarereaders #readtowrite #howtobeawriter #howtobeabetterwriter #storytelling #growinyourcraft #amreading #storystructure #booksbooksbooks #toomanybookstoolittletime
In "Quotes for Mindfulness," edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi, I came upon this tantalizing bit of wisdom from Martha Graham: "The body is a sacred garment. It's your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor." In many cultures, religions, myths, and stories, hair is treated as almost sacred and mysterious and powerful: Delilah cutting Samson's hair; the woman who in all four gospels anoints Jesus's feet with an outrageously expensive perfume and then dries them with her hair; Orthodox Jewish women wearing wigs so only their husbands see their natural beauty; Muslim women wearing the hijab, a veil worn in the public sphere for modesty; the German fairytale of Rapunzel letting down her golden hair from the tower for the prince to use as rope. With this in mind, I'm luxuriating in a bit of self-care this Sunday. Greek women have the most beautiful, thick hair. I am a halfling, though, and did not inherit that coveted gene. I have thin Swedish hair that's been ravished by years of harsh dyes. After a lot of research online I discovered Olaplex #4, which is specially designed for hair like mine. A woman in my writing group had given me a gift certificate to Sephora so I used it to purchase the shampoo, and they gave me a sample of Briogeo's Don't Despair Repair deep conditioning mask, which lo and behold had been my runner-up product when I was deciding how to invest my gift card. I've been using the Olaplex for about four months, and while my hair still isn't silky smooth like when I was a little girl, it's definitely been restorative enough to make my hair more touchable. Today I decided to finally treat myself to testing out the Briogeo; my first impression is that the conditioner that comes with hair dyes is still my #1, but we'll see how my hair is after drying. I finished up with the Hask Biotin Boost 5-in-1 Leave-in Spray for thickening and detangling, which I bought at CVS a while ago and smells incredible. :::
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@olaplex @briogeo @haskhair @sephora
#quotesformindfulness #mindfulnessquotes #hairmyth #carolkellygangi #marthagraham #sacredbody #sacredhair #greekhair
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