The women in my family always wrote. Journals, mostly. Many women fill their hope chests with clothing, linens, dishware. My mother filled hers with journals. They came in all sizes and types. Some were small enough that I could curl my palm around them. Others were large enough that they had to be held in… Continue reading The Women Always Wrote
At the turn of the 20th century, people couldn’t keep blogs about their dating adventures. They could, however, keep chap records. To modern ears, the phrase “chap records” sounds like a clumsy reference to a child’s first chapter book. But the phrase was a bit different. Young women used chap records, which were mostly blank… Continue reading Of Rakes and Dandies: Chap Records as Historical Dating Apps
Though I love the flexibility that modern technology offers to writers, a bit of beauty is lost when authors create their works using computers. With that in mind, today I want to feature some of the physical remnants of the work of writers. Some of these are notebooks filled with scraps of stories, others are… Continue reading A Writer’s Mind: Notebooks of Famous Folks
If magazines are anything to judge by, modern society is obsessed with health. We try yoga, marathons, spinach smoothies, and protein powders all in an attempt to become healthier people. But sometimes less physical activities also improve human health. One of those activities is writing. Researcher James W. Pennebaker explains that when writing, people “experience improved… Continue reading Get Healthier with This Simple Trick: Write
You are what you read. That is a simple enough concept, but it turns out that it means more than just that people who read mysteries may become better at writing mysteries. What a person reads fundamentally changes the structure of his or her writing. In June of 2016, the International Journal of Business Administration published “Syntactic… Continue reading How Different Types of Reading Change Your Writing
People often keep books close to the hearts in a metaphorical sense, but there are ways to literally keep books near the body as well. Peg and Awl, a small shop based out of Philadelphia, creates necklace that also function as working books or journals. The pieces of jewelry are…not cheap – the smallest one… Continue reading Wearing Words on Your Neck: Book Jewelry
When most of us think about publishing houses, we think of the big names in trade publishing. Hachette. Penguin Random House. HarperCollins. Macmillan. Simon & Schuster. But other types of presses also play a valuable and necessary role in creating diverse books. Some of these publishers are university presses. A university press differs from a… Continue reading The Magic of University Press Week, Online Events, Reading Suggestions, and More
People often say that someone “was raised by wolves”. Well wolves may not have raised me, but I certainly helped rear some of them. In exchange, they taught me how to write. Before I had entirely grown up, I spent several years working and volunteering at a wolf research and education facility. At the time, the… Continue reading Writing with Wolves
My recent foray into the Diversity Baseline Survey made me realize that I could do a bit better about these things as well. With that in mind, I want to highlight an exciting publishing opportunity. The Deaf Poets Society, an online journal not restricted to poets or members of the deaf community, is holding open submissions for works… Continue reading Publishing Opportunity: Poetry, Art, and Prose
Though I’m sure many of you already have busy weekends planned, I want to share another great writing contest. Tethered by Letters, a nonprofit literary group out of Denver, Colorado, is hosting its F(r)iction Fall Literary Competition. Participants can submit works to the short story, flash fiction, or poetry categories, and judges are Matt Gallagher, Sari… Continue reading Writing Contest: Tethered by Letters, $1000 Prize
Kristen Twardowski 