By Renee Gladman, from Calamities, a collection of linked essays that was published this month by Wave Books. Gladman is the author of eight works of prose, including the novel Ana Patova Crosses a Bridge.

I began the day having given myself the task of compiling a list. I wanted to see whether I could trace all the problems — large and small — I had taken on in my somewhat long career as a writer. I didn’t mean those asinine problems of writer’s block or other equally frustrating problems of self-worth (feeling too much or not enough). Rather, I wanted…