Literary Performance

Launching in the Time of Covid: A Debut Novelist Speaks

Launching in the Time of Covid: A Debut Novelist Speaks

by Mally Becker, TWC Outreach Coordinator A few authors tell me that I’ve missed out on the “real” book launch experience because The Turncoat’s Widow (Level Best Books 2021), my debut mystery, was published during the Covid-19 shutdown. I can’t compare my experience to anyone…

An Environment of Exploration and Inspiration

An Environment of Exploration and Inspiration

by Cindy Sharra, TWC Intern As New Jersey’s prolonged winter loosened its grasp, the long-awaited summer took its place. Students from around the area parted from their schools and supplies – except from their pencils, that is. But they wouldn’t be used for writing research…

Writers on the Spot – Reading aloud

Writers on the Spot – Reading aloud

A conversation with Judith Lindbergh and Michelle Cameron In anticipation of our upcoming workshop, “Reading Your Writing for an Audience”, Michelle and I thought we should discuss why we thought such a program was really relevant to writers. Below is the result of an interesting…

The Poet in All of Us

The Poet in All of Us

I am not a poet. I would never claim to be. If writing were music, I prefer to play conductor to soloist. My fiction would be a symphony, not a piece for solo piano. But the craft of a prose writer also involves cadences, subtle…

Lessons from Poets

Lessons from Poets

Poetry can feel, at times, as rarified as air, precious for its purity, its essentialness, its glittering, fluid, whimsical magnificence. It gives weight to simplicity and simplicity to weight, nourishing on levels more ephemeral and yet more visceral than prose. As I write my novels,…

The Writers Support Circle in the News

The Writers Support Circle in the News

I just wanted to post some links to the news coverage last week’s Creative Arts Showcase received on Maplewood Patch. Thanks to Eli Zwillenberg and Marcia Worth – both members of our circle – for the lovely story and photos.

"Finished"

"Finished"

There is nothing more rewarding that to reach a moment of culmination – whether it’s completing a short story or a novel, or simply experiencing a moment of true acknowledgment of your work. Last night’s Creative Arts Showcase at Maplewood’s Words Bookstore was one of…

The Storyteller’s Fire

The Storyteller’s Fire

As our Writers Circle prepares for its Creative Arts Showcase next week, I can’t help but be fully aware of the challenge of reading aloud, both from a perspective of performance and as a tool for the writer. My classes and groups have almost always…