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November 27, 2017Mariam Pirbhai on Bringing Invisible Characters into the Spotlight
An earthquake survivor, a resort hotel maid, a migrant worker on a chicken farm. These are just a few of the fascinating and diverse characters in Mariam Pirbhai's short story collection Outside People ...
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June 23, 2020Five Tips for Writing About Tough Topics for Children and Teens
The best comedy often comes from life’s darker moments. Read up on any comedian and you’ll likely learn about their tumultuous beginnings, middles and ends. (Especially, on Twitter. Literally. At ...
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June 30, 2023Adapting an Adult Book Into a Book for Young Readers
I know that young people are reading my 2019 book, because they’ve written me e-mails and messaged me on various social media platforms to tell me where they got it (thank you, libraries) and who they’re ...
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March 22, 2021The Writing Moment with Natasha Ramoutar's Bittersweet
Welcome to “The Writing Moment with . . .”!In this series of craft-focused columns, I will explore a wide range of works, topics, and interests that inspire me with the hope of inspiring you. I will ...
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May 17, 2018
In Praise of … Writing Manuals
Writing cannot be taught. It’s a phrase I hear a lot, and I totally get the sentiment. Writers sometimes want to believe that what they do on the page is pure magic, and some people have the gift and ...
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August 04, 2020Retreating from writing
Sometimes our stories practically beg to come to life on the page. Yet despite that begging, that longing, that desire to write, stories almost never just 'come to life' as easily as we might have imagined. ...
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November 22, 2018Calling All Aspiring Authors: Never Ask an Illustrator to Illustrate Your Picture Book for Free
A few weeks ago, I was in a local tavern with some friends—a few of them are professional illustrators. They were drinking overpriced mocktails and commiserating about the emails they get from aspiring ...
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September 28, 2017Cynthia Flood on the Books of Her Life: Lessing, Sewell, Kipling, & More
Whether she is telling a story that stretches over decades or one that is compressed into a matter of hours, Cynthia Flood has a knack for peeling back the surface and delving deep into the human condition. ...
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April 01, 2021Careful Inventory: a skillshare and series for emerging poets
Dear readers,Welcome to Careful Inventory. I am very grateful to Open Book for this residency in celebration of National Poetry Month; have you seen all the incredible company in their archives? I have ...
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April 22, 2020All of this listening
It was hard to write this column. Like everyone else, I’m all for trying to grasp at normalcy where I can, but I don’t have many writing tips to share right now. (Actually, I do have one writing tip: ...
