The Benefits of Being Wrong

The Benefits of Being Wrong

by Barbara Clarke We were in Best Buy looking to buy a laptop. But first, we were looking for a geek in the familiar blue shirt. “Someone who looks smart and won’t talk down to us,” we agreed. “Hey, how’s it going?” said a non-geeky looking young guy. We started to...
Managing Relationships with Family while Writing About Them

Managing Relationships with Family while Writing About Them

by Laurel Leigh  What should come first? Publishing your memoir or preserving family relationships? Sometimes writers feel they have to choose—on occasion, they do. We’ve all heard stories about what happened when the family flipped out over a memoir someone...
Writing for Personal Insight

Writing for Personal Insight

by Laura Rink This month I took a writing workshop with Andre Dubus III. He said just because something happened to you doesn’t mean you know what happened. You must explore, with authentic curiosity, that particular event, and your place in it. This piece of advice...
Entering Her Next Incarnation

Entering Her Next Incarnation

By Susan Chase-Foster “I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.” —William Carlos Williams Jennifer Wilke and I are hanging out, self-medicating our chronic literary conditions at the writers’ table upstairs in Village Books. She’s a tall, handsome woman...
Kick Open the Closet Door:  Write a Memoir

Kick Open the Closet Door: Write a Memoir

by Shannon Hager Author: Five Thousand Brothers-in-Law: Love in Angola Prison, a memoir We all have stories worth sharing. Mark Twain advised, “Write about what you know.” Memoir writing requires a high level of self-exposure, risking disapproval, danger or pain. To...