For years I kept a handful of John Steinbeck quotes on my office wall, among them: “The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.” I loved how that quote captures the two …
The Writer’s Healthy Delusions by Andromeda Romano-Lax Read More »
This June something extraordinary happened. I published my debut novel, Dreaming Home. It has already gotten positive notice, including—unbelievably to me—a favorable review in The New York Times. I’m over the moon about this recognition for something I labored over for more than fifteen years. But here’s the thing, I didn’t write the novel alone. …
It Takes a Family to Write a Novel by Lucian Childs Read More »
So, yesterday I was writing this sentence, and the fancy grammar-check tool in my laptop caught me failing to practice what we preach in “flash” writing workshops: ie. writing precisely and economically. Our motto is “A Few Good Words”. The sentence: He reverts back to his usual snarly tone. It’s not the worst sentence I’ve …
Live from Storyknife: July 2023 Recorded Tuesday, July 18, 2023 | 7-8pm via Zoom Jane Kalu studies Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California. Her short fiction has been featured or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, Boston Review, The Hopkins Review, Isele Magazine, Munyori Journal, and elsewhere. Jane is a graduate …
Sometimes we just need the right word or phrase in order to bring a problem and its solution into focus. For me last month, that phrase was “Project Stacking.” I came across it in a newsletter by a comedy writer named Caitlin Kunkel, who learned it in grad school, in a program focused on writing …
EPISODE SUMMARY In her debut album, Sisters of White Chapel, Alaskan writer and musician Annie Bartholomew brings a fresh approach to traditional folk music, channeling the under told stories of some of the working women of Alaska’s Gold Rush. And as she tells 49 Writers Active Voice producer and host Katie Bausler, sex work was …
AVP 23: Annie Bartholomew, Writer-Musician, Sisters of White Chapel Read More »
LIVE FROM STORYKNIFE SERIES: JUNE 2023 Recorded Tuesday, June 20, 2023 | 7-8pm via Zoom Kat Chow is the author of Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir, named a New York Times Notable Book of 2021. She was a reporter at NPR. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and on Radiolab. Renata Golden’s work has been …
Photo caption: The face of a man who can’t come up with a good novel title. Have you ever heard about those parents who don’t name a child when he or she is born, delaying the choice for several days? It’s their legal right to do so. But the failure to name a baby seems, …
EPISODE SUMMARY Beth Ann Mathews, her husband Jim and nine year old son Glen were living a full and vibrant life in Alaska’s capital Juneau, which, as she describes lies, “between the ocean and a retreating glacier, a dynamic landscape that challenged and nurtured us.” She could not have imagined the challenges the family …
READING AND CONVERSATION SERIES: GERRI BRIGHTWELL Recorded Thursday, May 25, 2023 | 6-7pm via Zoom Gerri Brightwell is a British writer who lives in Alaska. She is the author of the novels Dead of Winter (Salt, 2016), The Dark Lantern (Crown, 2008), Cold Country (Duckworth, 2003), and Turnback Ridge (Torrey House Press, 2022). Her short …
