Month: October 2021

Your first memory of Jesus Christ as a child? I grew up attending Church, so Jesus was always around and discussed. I can’t narrow a specific moment in my childhood, but I recall watching one of those dramas queued to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” with a girl playing a lost character and then Jesus…… Continue reading What We’re Working With (Or the Trials and Tribulations of Making Sense of Your 20s) “Words From a Twenty-Something Woman” Guest Blog Post by Natalie Bassie

When did you begin writing “Plastic Box” and when did you finish this piece of fiction? I began brainstorming “Plastic Box” at the beginning of September 2020. It’s when notetaking began. I became a notetaking fool: in the car at red lights, on my daily walks, in line at the grocery store. This is when…… Continue reading #267 Inside the Emotion of Fiction: Ron D’Alena’s short story “Plastic Box” from his short story collection The Madness of Being.

Name of fiction work?  And were there other names that you considered? My novel is called The Beautiful Place.  When I started writing it and wasn’t yet sure what it was, I called it Something. What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you finished the piece of…… Continue reading #266 Inside the Emotion of Fiction: Lee Gowan’s “The Beautiful Place”

What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir?  It feels like I started writing this memoir in April 4, 1981 when my cousin Karen was killed and I saw my father cry for the first time.  I felt like I was outside my body, watching the…… Continue reading #19 The Magnification of One Memory in Memoir: Elle Johnson’s “The Officer’s Daughter: A Memoir of Family and Forgiveness”

What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? I began writing Rare Bird in late October 2012 and completed it in September 2013. It was published by Convergent Books, a division of Random House in September 2014. Anna Whiston-Donaldson in 2012. Copyright by Anna Whiston-Donaldson Where…… Continue reading #018 Magnification of One Memory in Memoir: Anna Whiston-Donaldson’s “Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love”

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? This poem is part of my collection Balancing:  Poems of the Female Immigrant Experience, in the Upper Midwest, 1830-1930. I worked on the collection for perhaps twenty years, so I…… Continue reading #330 Backstory of the Poem: Kathleen Ernst’s “Joy in the Morning”

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? Where and when did you start the poem? Usually, poems come to me in a dream state, often after reading poetry in the morning. I begin with lines scratched in…… Continue reading #328 Backstory of the Poem: Wendy T. Carlisle’s “Thirteen”

What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? After my mother died in January, 2009, I started writing letters to her. It was therapy for me – a way to get through the grief and anxiety that I thought was lasting way longer than “normal.” I…… Continue reading #017 Magnification of One Memory in Memoir: Mary McSwain Steele’s “BETTY”

What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? The glib part of me wants to say that I’ve been working on this memoir my entire life. After all, we are the meaning-makers of our lives and when there are huge gaps in the narrative, we seek…… Continue reading #016 The Magnification of One Memory In Memoir: C. Vargas McPherson’s “INHERITING OUR NAMES: AN IMAGINED TRUE MEMOIR OF SPAIN’S PACT OF FORGETTING”

Left: Wren Wright in August of 2021. Copyright by Wren Wright What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? It wasn’t a straight, even line from conception to publication, and it took longer than I originally anticipated. My memoir spans less than 6 years—from the time…… Continue reading #015 Magnification of One Memory In Memoir: Wren Wright’s The Grapes of Dementia