As more and more examples of systemic racism surface in the wake of the resurgent #BlackLivesMatter movement, a skilled writer has chronicled her own challenges as a Black fiction writer in a world largely comprised of white readers, agents, editors and publishers. Laura Warrell's "Writing While Black" in the Los Angeles Review of Books moved …
Tag: writing workshop
MFA Nugget: Taking Your Reader on a Journey Through Time
Vermont College of Fine Arts instructor Douglas Glover has a single question he likes to ask his students, repeatedly. At his lecture here in the MFA in Writing residency Thursday, he said he fills his students' manuscripts with one word: "When?" "Where are the time markers?" asks Glover, a teacher who also finds time to …
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MFA Nugget: Standing Naked Before Your Peers
How often in life do you lay yourself bare and invite people to inspect your every birthmark, wrinkle, and fold of fat? Beauty pageant contestants spend five minutes on stage in a swimsuit. When I competed in solo and ensemble festivals, I would sing for five minutes in front of three judges, then leave the …
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Visit These Six Blogs. Now.
I have just concluded teaching a six-week class--"Writing Compelling Blog Posts" at The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland--and thoroughly enjoyed learning more about blogging and writing myself, as we spent six Tuesday nights workshopping each other's potential blog posts. We were a bit large for a workshop--eighteen strong, when everyone could make it--but we found …
The Artist's Road 