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Writers Light the Darkest Night with Words

Writers Light the Darkest Night with Words

By Erin Madigan White Writers came from across suburban New Jersey – from Madison, Montclair, West Orange, as far away as Princeton – to gather together for The Writers Circle’s inaugural Winter Solstice Candlelight Write on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025.  They spent the darkest night…

April Darcy on the Simple Reminder That Motivates Her to Write

April Darcy on the Simple Reminder That Motivates Her to Write

April Darcy just wrapped up teaching The Writers Circle’s novel-writing boot camp–a six-week intensive workshop focused on writing as much as you can as fast as you can. It’s fair to say she knows a thing or two about pushing her limits on the page.…

Why the Carpool Could Be the Secret to Better Characters

Why the Carpool Could Be the Secret to Better Characters

By Erin Madigan White I don’t love driving the carpool. I don’t care for stinky cleats or the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack. I’m exhausted by the endless loops to soccer practice and dance lessons, which are cosmically aligned with dinner-time, siblings’ activities, and work calls.…

Fifteen Years of the Best Job of My Life

Fifteen Years of the Best Job of My Life

by Michelle Cameron, Co-Director Emerita (cross-posted from Substack) I was weeping almost daily on my way to my 9-5 job, hating being hemmed in by corporate rules and regulations, wishing desperately to reinvent myself, to live what I wistfully called “the writing life.” After I…

What Every Writer Can Steal From Crime Fiction

What Every Writer Can Steal From Crime Fiction

Mally Becker is the award-winning author of the Revolutionary War mysteries, including The Turncoat’s Widow, The Counterfeit Wife, and The Paris Mistress. She was an attorney until happily trading in her law license to become a full-time writer. Here she talks about secrets, suspense, stakes,…

Writers Let Creativity Take Flight at Autumn Retreat

Writers Let Creativity Take Flight at Autumn Retreat

Almost 30 writers from around New Jersey gathered at Lord Stirling Park in Basking Ridge, on Sunday, Oct. 26, for The Writers Circle annual Autumn Mini-Retreat.  The day opened with a welcome and words of inspiration from TWC Co-Directors Judith Lindbergh and Michelle Cameron.  “If…

Liz Alterman: How One Memoir Class Changed Everything

Liz Alterman: How One Memoir Class Changed Everything

Liz Alterman is the author of the award-winning memoir, Sad Sacked, the young adult thriller, He’ll Be Waiting, the suspense novels The Perfect Neighborhood, The House on Cold Creek Lane, and You Shouldn’t Have Done That, as well as the romcom Claire Casey’s Had Enough. Here,…

Mike Allegra: KidLit ‘Gives My Imagination Permission to Run Wild’

Mike Allegra: KidLit ‘Gives My Imagination Permission to Run Wild’

Mike Allegra is the author of 18 books for children and has taught at The Writers Circle for over six years. As a teacher, Mike helps kids, teens, and adults fall in love with creative writing, and express their voices on the page. Here, he…

Instructor Wisdom from Talia Tucker

Instructor Wisdom from Talia Tucker

Talia Tucker lives and writes in New Jersey. She has a BA in communication from Rutgers University and an MA in liberal studies from Loyola University Maryland. She loves mindless comedies and twisty slow-burn dramas, both of which inspire her writing, as does her connection…

Instructor Wisdom from April Darcy

Instructor Wisdom from April Darcy

Prize-winning writer April Darcy brings joy and wisdom to her writing students, even when pushing them through the super-intensive NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) each November.    Her latest fiction can be found in Water~Stone Review and in Shenandoah, where she received the Shenandoah River Fiction Prize. Her…

Instructor Wisdom from Novelist Libby Cudmore

Instructor Wisdom from Novelist Libby Cudmore

Libby Cudmore is a favorite among our Summer Creative Writing Intensives teens. For the last several summers, she’s taught everything from mystery and detective novels to sci-fi/fantasy and micro fiction.  Her brand new novel, Negative Girl, is getting rave reviews. Libby’s also the 2018 recipient…

Writing When Life Gets In the Way

Writing When Life Gets In the Way

by Co-Director Michelle Cameron “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” – John Lennon Once upon a time, back when I worked for a digital agency, we were asked to explore a list of life events for a corporate client. No…