Welcome to Clarity, which was a name so suited to my surname I could not help but choose it, and is also my favorite writing compliment, as in, “Sheela, you write with such clarity.”
I started Clarity after I got sick of submitting to the literary journals they tell you to submit to in writing school, but whose publication selection algorithm is inscrutable.
As a teacher, I use it as a classroom and as a student of our crazy world I used it as a laboratory in which to figure out what I think and how to say what is not being said elsewhere.
Free Subscribers get access to:
Storytelling advice.
Writing craft essays.
Humor writing that makes the intolerable world more tolerable.
Personal essays that, like me, wear their hearts on their sleeves.
Strong opinions on controversial subjects like why Biden lost the 2024 election, how the New York Times bungled Covid, and the correct way to make spaghetti carbonara.
Paid Subscribers get:
The opportunity to workshop a story, lecture, essay, speech or other public speaking engagement text with me. ($200 value.)
Access to the full archive (Priceless)
My boundless gratitude for supporting me in doing what I love.
About Me
My true writing obsessions are education and the changing nature of community, and my approach to them is informed by my experience teaching go-getters in the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea, go-getters in a start-up middle school in the South Bronx, and disengaged boys in my hometown high school.
At any given time of year I would rather be swimming in the Green River in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, near where I was born and have raised my own family.
I also:
Teach Italian and Storytelling, which I am not sure should be capitalized.
Organize live storytelling events in collaboration with a range of local organizations doing good works in the world.
Write freelance reviews, features, essays and humor for the Berkshire Edge, as well as other publications.
Consult on public speaking and storytelling for people who find themselves called upon to talk in public.
