Spring is the time of new birth, and that includes book manuscripts.  Writers have been working hard all winter and want to bring their ...

I first learned about Jay Gilbertson's wonderful series of novels when he attended several of my writing retreats on Madeline Island...

M y interview with writer Amy Hanson generated a flurry of response--and some thought-provoking questions.  Amy's story is mag...

One of my all-time favorite sources of inspiration is this week's quote from dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, writing to her p...

Amy Hanson started writing her novel, a braided narrative about a woman in Zambia and a woman in Seattle, when her third child was a yea...

No matter where you are in the book-writing journey, at some point the sheer volume of material begins to overwhelm and it's ti...

I like picking up what I call "airport reads," just to see what's up in commercial fiction.  Airport reads are those books...

What I call the "inner story" in fiction or memoir just refers to the transformation of a character or narrator through a ...

I admire Andre Dubus's writing, both his fiction ( House of Sand and Fog ) and his memoir ( Townie ).  This week, as I return from...

I don't know anyone who thinks our world is perfect right now.   My Facebook feed is so disturbing some days, I can't read...