Does Spelling Count? It’s pretty instructive for a freelance writer to sit on the other side of the table – the side that receives the manuscript submissions. I’ve had a chance to do this as a reader for the Pushcart Prize, as a reader for a literary press, and as a judge of a national Read More
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July 18, 2013
Recipe for Succeeding in the Publishing World Ingredients: Fistfuls of Talent Luck Desire Craftwork Perseverance as Mix everything together, adding an extra cup of perseverance. Want a taste? Sample this tidbit from Oprah Magazine’s Essential Beach Reads, featuring our very own Straw Dog founding member, Linda McCullough Moore: as From the Oprah editor: “I was Read More
June 17, 2013
Summer Reading We are closing in on the longest day of the year. More daylight means more opportunity to ponder the vagaries of the writing process. Here are a couple of books to peruse for inspiration by two venerable Pioneer Valley teachers. There is enough wisdom here to carry us through to the shortest day of the year, Read More
June 3, 2013
Misery Loves Miserable Company I have been cleaning – the frenzied kind that leaves piles of debris all over the house, detritus that will be swept out, later rather than sooner. The impetus is party, a non-negotiable deadline. Everything is a mess, the process is a bore, and progress seems inconceivable. Sounds a bit like Read More
May 20, 2013
Guest Blogger: Kathy Dunn as Writing on the Slow Train as “A good thought, like a good donkey, is something to be nurtured. Neither likes to be rushed.” –Slow Travel Europe In the world of Slow Travel, getting there can still be half the fun. And while some trips do require air travel, Slow Travel embraces Read More
May 6, 2013
Guest Blogger: Kathy Dunn as A friend and fellow writer sent me the following quote: akljf “I was starting to wonder if I was ready to be a writer, not someone who won prizes, got published and was given the time and space to work, but someone who wrote as a course of life. Maybe writing Read More
April 22, 2013
Musing on Slow Words I bought new stationary today. Colorful painted birds on bright white paper made from cotton rags. My intention – to start writing letters again to my old friends, the ones who knew me before the Internet existed. Don’t get me wrong. I love typing on my computer. I probably would not be a writer if Read More
April 1, 2013
Straw Dog mugs have arrived! With the arrival of spring has come a flock of shiny new Straw Dog mugs! We love them… and already they have inspired the inevitable, irresistible urge to wax poetic: My very own Straw Dog mug! So happy I give it a hug. My muse is Caffeine – Read More
March 18, 2013
SDWG Goes to AWP 2013 Boston was filled to the brim with writers last week. The annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs 2013 Conference (AWP) attracted over 11,000 authors. Straw Dog Founding Members, Patricia Lee Lewis, Ellen Meeropol, and Jacqueline Sheehan were invited to offer a presentation in which they shared their wisdom about Read More
March 4, 2013
as You Can’t Go Home Again as Fiction as At the age of fifty-one, with ninety-seven representative samples of my work published in what are kindly called literary journals, I sold my first essay to a major magazine. For cash. Three thousand smackeroos for a reminiscence of my house and standard-issue family. Three thousand Read More