DANIEL PALIWODA
My Writer’s Notebook
Reflections on writing projects; observations from my classrooms; viewpoints on politics, war, and history; and thoughts on various other topics.
latest blogs
Tuesday 01 April 2025 Just Go! This mantra has become my rallying cry; even my wife has begun to declare this shibboleth. And why not? If you can go, stop waiting. ...
Tuesday 11 March 2025 Bucket Lists sound so morbid, exuding fumes of death; after all, the two characters in Rob Reiner’s 2007 film, The Bucket List, written by Justin Zackham...
Tuesday 04 March 2025 During the past two years, the thoughts of travelling more and of experiencing more adventures and of assigning more time to create those memories not only have...
Tuesday 25 February 2025 “If there is any kind of memorial… a single flower, photograph… anything, then that’s the point. If there isn’t a single thing, then that’s the point,...
Tuesday 18 February 2025 Where to begin? What should I write today? The past week, my mind has been made to feel dizzy by writing subject ideas. The problem: choosing one topic...
Tuesday 11 February 2025 Like last week’s blog entry, today’s blog started out as a rough draft for this blog site. As the writing became longer and more complicated, I convinced...
Tuesday 04 February 2025 During the Spring 2024 semester, I began creating new content for the revised draft of my Katyn manuscript. Originally, this piece was to be a blog intended...
Tuesday 28 January 2025 “Ten years. Today is my tenth anniversary teaching this war class here,” I began. I started teaching last Wednesday, and I was more nervous than usual. To...
Monday 20 January 2025 I start teaching classes this week. Revising my course assignment requirements and revisiting some poetry and nonfiction that I haven’t taught in years and adding...
learn more about me
My love for teaching literature and writing started in Fall 2000. I began my doctoral education. Linked with that love for teaching is my passion for writing. During the final six months of completing my doctorate in American Literature, I realized I was drawn more to Holocaust Studies and War Literature. I even taught my first Literature of the Holocaust course while I defended my Herman Melville dissertation. I sensed immediately this course had not only changed me as a scholar but also as a person.