About

Welcome to Marniere, a blog by Marnie Bullock Dresser.

What I’m up to in this blog: I see Marniere as straddling several streams of thought:
1. I process the world by writing poems, and I like posting them here. The poems have different functions and different potential. Here’s where I describe “car sonnets, bloems, and pogs.”
2. Sometimes I see myself as writing something akin to creative nonfiction. Here’s an example, called “If God’s going to all the trouble of sending a tornado after you…” Fairly often, it’s my faith journey that inspires these pieces.
3. I write a fair bit about my life as a teacher and a colleague in an academic setting. Work-life balance, etc. Sometimes these emerge as op-eds, sometimes as advice columns almost.
4. I don’t have a singular focus in terms of theme, but I do tend to focus on these goals as a writer, regardless of whether it’s 1, 2, 3 or 4 above:
Think hard.
Say it well.
Make it matter.
Try to laugh.
Take some risks.

Home & Hearth:

I live in Spring Green, Wisconsin, home of American Players Theatre and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin. It’s a terrific little town.

On April 20, 1997, I got married to Nath Dresser. Since 2005, we’ve been absorbed with parenting a very, very interesting child, Wendell Roan.

 

We named  him after Wendell Berry, and took our Wendell to meet Big Wendell in Madison at a book-signing event. Our Wendell was four at the time, and used the opportunity to crawl around under the table instead of saying hello. We told Big Wendell we’d named Wendell after him, but that he might not get to say hello, since our Wendell was somewhat contrary. “Well named,” Big Wendell said.

 

I’ve been teaching at the University of Wisconsin Richland since the fall of 1992

A marniere is actually a chalk mine in France, or the sink hole caused by a collapsing chalk mine. There are a lot of them in Normandy, apparently. It seemed like a good metaphor to me. (There’s a diacritical mark in there somewhere.)

 

Follow me on Twitter if you want: @MarnieDresser