Writing Life By Jane Roy Brown My friend Martha had just retired, and we were having a typical conversation about what she wanted to do next. Martha ticked through a list—serve on the town conservation commission, maybe take a class at the community college, read more, spend time with her grandchildren, travel. Then she paused. Read More
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Listening to Other Voices By Ellen Meeropol
Listening to Other Voices Guest Blogger: Ellen Meeropol We read for so many reasons – to be entertained, to armchair-travel, to be goosed into other ways of thinking, to learn, to experience lives very different from our own. To expand our world. We choose our books in many ways too. We browse bookstore and library Read More
March 1, 2016
Reflections on the New Year By Patricia Lee Lewis When the new year dawned, I was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, watching the tops of snowy mountains glow pink in the rising sun and listening to Alasdair Fraser play his fiddle on the radio. For this turning of the year, he’d chosen a tune from the Read More
February 1, 2016
Nervous? Breathe and Speak Up Guest blogger: Becky Jones Susan Daniels, in her recent program on Dynamic Presentation, borrowed from her acting career to give the Straw Dog audience useful tools to enhance reading our writings to an audience. Her instruction gave us ways to appear strong and confident, even when we’re afraid. Her suggestions Read More
WORDPEACE by Lori Desrosiers
Guest Blogger: Lori Desrosiers In November, Lori Desrosiers joined a panel of esteemed local editors to discuss publishing in literary journals. During their compelling conversation, Lori mentioned a new venture, Wordpeace (http://wordpeace.co). I invited Lori to tell us more about this important new project, the kind that – in my opinion – we desperately need Read More
December 1, 2015
For Your Consideration: A Panel of Editors Guest Blogger: Samantha Wood This article appeared in The Recorder online edition, Wednesday, November 25, 2015, and in print the following day. Straw Dog Writers Guild is grateful for the author’s permission to republish it here. If you are a writer who aims to get published, then it is likely you know what Read More
November 1, 2015
Join us for 30 Poems in November! Guest Blogger: Jean Blakeman Now in its 7th year, 30 Poems in November! is an important and inspiring fundraiser for Center for New Americans. Center for New Americans, headquartered in Northampton, Massachusetts, provides free English classes, citizenship assistance, and other services to the immigrant and refugee population of Read More
October 1, 2015
Mini Craft Lesson Missy Wick, Blog Editor Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference and working with Bread Loaf Fellow Brando Skyhorse, author of the novel The Madonnas of Echo Park and memoir Take This Man. In his memoir Skyhorse describes his unusual family history: When he was three years old, Brando Read More
September 1, 2015
Inside The Young Writer’s Nest Youth in Creative Writing Workshops – Part 2 Guest Blogger: Lynn Bowmaster It’s 4:10 on a Wednesday and I’m preparing to host Woven Word Young Writers. One by one the writers arrive, drop their backpacks at the door and head into my kitchen. S. takes over the air popper so Read More
Zine Radio: by Margaret Crocker, Smith College
Zine Radio Guest Blogger: Margaret Crocker, Smith College Recently, NPR’s This American Life did a story, called “Freedom Fries,” on women’s voices on the radio — and how This American Life receives correspondence criticizing young female contributors. According to critics, women’s voices suffer from “vocal fry,” a guttural sound that a voice can make when Read More