ABCs of Creative Nonfiction

After having an essay published last year in Spry Literary Journal, I was invited to contribute to Spry’s ABC series. Writing for Beginners and Fiction Writing would be followed by the ABCs of Creative Nonfiction, and I could write on the letter of my choice.

I quickly claimed the letter “M” with its myriad manifestations–memoir, memory, motivation, and metaphor, to name just a few. And what about mentors and muses? I’d written a chapter, “A Muse of One’s Own,” for the 2014 book Writing after Retirement (yes, of course I spotlight Virginia Woolf!)–so I adapted it for this project.

My link is to the entire list–I’m reading through them, & you may want to do the same. My favorite so far is “A is for Accoutrements” by Spry’s editor, Erin Ollila. But before you get distracted, click here and scroll down to “M is for Mentors and Muses and Models, Oh My!”

 

Eat, Write …

What a brilliant concept, tailor-made for me–an exhibition that displays creative writing works about eating with original photographs to accompany each piece. Drawing from among my many food-related personal essays, I chose “Love at First Bite”–an homage to sushi nested in a recap of my love life, originally published in City Works Journal in 2012– as my submission, and it was one of thirteen works chosen, three of them prose and the rest poetry.

The installation is on exhibit at The Norton Center for the Arts at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky through the end of the year, though I’m not likely to find myself in Kentucky to see it. Happily it’s online, and you can see the whole exhibition here. Scroll down to find my piece and have a look at some of the other scrumptious works too. Unfortunately only thumbnail-size reprints of the photographs are shown on the site; the originals are gorgeous. Mine–I have a print–is a glistening jewel-like piece of salmon roe nigiri surrounded by delicate lace.

 

 

Drunks and Fools

I’ve known a number of drunks & a lot of fools (most of us qualify at one time or another). I’ve always thought there was wisdom in the pairing of the two, although I don’t believe they’re under divine protection.

When I decided to write about booze in my life, the title was a given.

Here’s “Drunks and Fools,” freshly published in bioStories.

 

Still typing….

I supported myself and my family for many years thanks to my typing skill; now it’s the means to another end–my writing.

The two come together in my essay, “But can she type?”, published in April in the Seattle print journal, Crab Creek Review. Read it here.

 

Solitude, blessed solitude…

I acknowledge in my essay that the topic has been done to death, & I ask what I could possibly add to it. My own take, that’s what, which draws not just from personal experience but from my reading: Virginia Woolf, of course, and others I admire–like Doris Grumbach and Rebecca Solnit–who’ve pondered and pontificated on the subject.

“Solo in Seattle” is the result, a meditation and homage, published in the latest issue of The Tishman Review. You’ll find it linked here, on pages 109-113.

With thanks to my friend and mentor, Priscilla Long, who not only makes my solitary retreat possible but whose encouragement and own writing are constant sources of inspiration. See you in July, Priscilla…!

 

Isabel Bolton: a discovery and a new direction

My discovery of the obscure mid-20th-century novelist Isabel Bolton led to extensive research and an exploratory essay. I wasn’t surprised when early in my search I discovered critics’ comparisons of Bolton to Virginia Woolf, and when I read the first of Bolton’s modernist novels I could indeed see similarities in style and theme.

“In Search of Isabel Bolton” was jointly published this month by Bloom (linked here), one of my favorite sites for obvious reasons: a focus on late bloomers, qualified by the question “‘Late’ according to whom?”, and in the esteemed online magazine The Millions (linked here).

This project, on the heels of an earlier piece about Lillie Coit, is leading me into new territory in my writing, more research-based essays. I can hardly wait to see what happens next!

 

Dead Housekeeping

That’s the provocative name of an onsite literary journal that sees its purpose to be “a heartfelt look at loss through the lens of the home.” More as a writing exercise than anything else, I tackled the challenge of creating a micro-essay that would capture a small portion of my mother’s idiosyncratic ways.

Voila! Linked here is “Fresh Linens,” the latest post at Dead Housekeeping. I didn’t have a photo of my mom in action, so I had to perform the re-enactment.