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Email me at heatherklanier@gmail.com

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Anna Knutson Geller
Write View
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				My publishing thoughts for the day. 
			
					
				I belong to an obscure religion whose teacher requires only two things: Love God. Love your neighbor. It’s not an easy charge in any month, let alone election season, and I’m wildly imperfect at it. Still, that’s the work. ❤️
			
					
				As a writing teacher, I tell my students that I’m not their audience. Their goal isn’t to please me. They are not writing for me. They’re writing for themselves, and for the readers they want to reach. I’m just their guide along their way. I’m like their midwife, helping them birth their creations. Just like the baby isn’t for the midwife, the poem or essay or story isn’t for the writing teacher. It’s for the larger world. 
			
					
				Dear parent of a newborn with something rare: Your child is beautiful and beloved. Nothing has changed that fact. No chromosome test, no symptoms, no markers—nothing can change this essential truth. Your baby is a vital part of this world, a one-of-a-kind in the tally of 8 billion people on this planet. 
			
					
				There’s a lot of striving in this world. Goal-setting. Reaching. And I don’t knock any of that. It can be useful and fun to name an aim and try for it…. But it can also be really tiring.
			
					
				There’s an MSNBC video going viral, where a representative of Moms For Liberty—an organization trying to ban LGBTQ literature from public schools (among other things)—argues that kids who are gay should be educated separately, like kids with autism and Down Syndrome. The representative says that, in the same way that (in her words) autism is shameful and wouldn’t be discussed publicly in a classroom, being gay is also shameful, so gay kids should get separate educations.
			
					
				On why I don’t tend to use the term “special needs”: The word "special" implies "extra," like when we say a person shouldn't expect "special treatment." My daughter's needs, though, aren't icing on a cake. They're essential for her ability to access fundamental rights, like the right to enter public spaces, join peers in play, and communicate her ideas. 
			
					
				Have you tried those overpriced meal-prep delivery services? Every ingredient you need for the meal already comes in the box! With each ingredient already premeasured! Studies show that 107% of humans suffer from pandemic-related decision fatigue. I think these things will save our lives and should be free with our rapid tests. Did I mention that the recipe card has photos for each step? All you have to do is follow the instructions?!
			
					
				Families like mine who are looking for summer activities have the additional burden of trying to figure out if kid-centered spaces are truly designed for kids like ours. Often, they aren’t. When we double-check, well-meaning folks — or maybe just folks who’ve caught a whiff of how popular the word inclusive is — tell us we are “welcome.” But then they proceed with business as usual. And at $1,000 for a summer membership, our local swim club is very much a business.