How much of writing comes from narration? Our Children’s Book Club reads Jean Fritz’s “Homesick: My Own Story,” a Newbery Honor-winner.
Children’s Book Club: ‘Once Upon a Camel’
In middle-grade stories the journey can happen Anywhere. Even to a camel, far from home. Join us for Kathi Appelt’s “Once Upon a Camel.”
Poetry Prompt: Be Your Own Professor — Haiku for Understanding
Something magical can happen when you read a challenging story and then become your own professor — with a summary and haiku.
Reading Generously: ‘How We Fight for Our Lives’ by Saeed Jones
This month our book review column becomes Reading Generously. We begin with Saeed Jones’ open-handed memoir.
Taking a Scottish Road Trip with Jorge Luis Borges
What was supposed to be an “author-sitting” stint turned into a Scotland road trip for a young grad student and Jorge Luis Borges.
Poetry as a Way of Ordering Experience: “The Music of Time” by John Burnside
Poetry can be a way to bring meaning and order to one’s life, writes John Burnside in “The Music of Time: Poetry in the Twentieth Century.”
Memoir Notebook: The Minors
What does it really mean to be an adult? Guest author John Mitchell Morris’s haunting story challenges us to consider.
Poets and Poems: Mary Karr and “Tropic of Squalor”
“Tropic of Squalor” by poet and memorist Mary Karr demonstrates Karr’s well-earned reputation for excellence in imagery and metaphor.
Memoir Notebook: Three Summers, Part One: The Seed
A city boy goes to spend the summer on a farm in rural Ohio, and the experience stays with him into his golden years, still surprising him with the way it reveals plain and not-so-plain truths.
Memoir Notebook: A Courtyard in Queens
Dheepa Maturi reflects on her little Queens, New York, courtyard and its open-minded, open-hearted embrace, which welcomed and encircled and protected her.
“The Joy of Poetry” by Megan Willome
“The Joy of Poetry” by Megan Willome tells the story of her mother and herself, what poetry can do in a person’s life, and what it does in all of our lives.
Memoir Notebook: Molly and the Thieves
In our latest Memoir Notebook, Richard Maxson remembers his beloved German Shepherd Molly, in a tale of love, loss, and a band of thieves.
Memoir Notebook: Sweet Talk
In this Memoir Notebook, Darrelyn Saloom recalls watching her stepfather raise his right arm. This time, his open hand curled into a fist.
Memoir Notebook: Too Close for Comfort
Darrelyn Saloom reveals childhood fears, both macro–the Cold War–and micro–her stepfather’s anger–in this entry in the Memoir Notebook.
The Writing Life: The Writer’s Delusion and Telling it Slant
How does a writer tell the truth in her writing when it doesn’t line up perfectly with the facts? Charity Singleton Craig considers the writer’s delusion.
Memoir Notebook: The Worst Kind of Luck
Darrelyn Saloom recalls her mother, Billie Burnside and the Circle Inn lounge in this poignant entry in the Memoir Notebook.
Memoir Notebook: Voices (or, How to Write Spiritual Memoir)
Heed the voices, says Wm. Anthony Connolly, for they are the memoirist’s own rising from the soul.
Memoir Notebook: Double I/Eye
You’ll attempt in memoir to recall as best you can, but it’s not always possible. One possible avenue of resolving the memory folly is splitting the memoirist in two.
Memoir Notebook: The Bright Orders
By way of our Memoir Notebook, we want you to meander, get caught up, find yourself taken to places you hadn’t intended to go (but are so glad, in the end, that you went). Today, Wm. Anthony Connolly talks about ghosts and Olympia Café.
Memoir Notebook: Folie a Deux — The Ghost in You
By way of our Memoir Notebook, we want you to meander, get caught up, find yourself taken to places you hadn’t intended to go (but are so glad, in the end, that you went). You’ll get thoughts on aesthetics, craft, latest issues, tips and books to read. But it will feel like poetic narrative. And sometimes it will simply be poetic narrative.