The Writer Magazine

Ladette Randolph has achieved the trifecta of writing success. After many years in book publishing, she now works as the editor-in-chief of Ploughshares literary magazine, and her personal writing repertoire includes two novels, one collection of short stories and numerous prizes. Her memoir Leaving the Pink House unites personal essays and journal entries through the themes of home and faith.

The first framesof Kristin Radtke’s video essay “That Kind of Daughter” show a lighted square projected onto a screen, reminiscent of 1970s home movies. In a moment, the black-and-white cut-out shape of a finger appears, and then another; two hands materialize holding a baby chick. “My mother feeds them bananas out of her hands,” says Radtke’s voiceover in a dreamy, melodious tone.

It’s pouring rain on a November evening in New England, and inside Emerson College’s Walker Building on the south side of Boston Common, Lissa Warren urges her graduate students to think like publishers. Each student has a handout that reads “A Day in the Life of a Publisher” with a list of problems publishers confront daily. The challenges include an author who shows up to events drunk and a drummer threatening to sue over being featured in his bandmates’ memoir.

J.K. Rowling and R.L. Stine may be two of the best-known authors who’ve tried to break into a new market, but they are far from the only ink slingers who’ve adapted their styles to audiences of all ages. Indeed, those authors join a long line of writers who have tried to cross over from writing for children to writing for older audiences and vice versa. Judy Blume, Roald Dahl, Philip Pullman and Rick Riordan have all written books for both children and adults.

Freelance writer and blogger Melissa Blake was 25 years old and just out of journalism school when she published her first essay about having a disability, in Redbook magazine. In the piece, she wrote about being born with Freeman-Sheldon syndrome, which causes shortened muscles and bones, and described several of the almost 30 surgeries she endured before she graduated from high school.

Many of my earliest writing credits were book reviews – not little snippets like what you find on Goodreads or Amazon, but in-depth, full-length reviews that appeared in print, blogs, magazines, newspapers, etc. Why did I spend so many hours reading, thinking through, and writing about the work of others? Four simple reasons: Are you passionate about books, authors and writing? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, full of tips, reviews, and more.

So you want to record an audiobook? It can definitely be worth it: The way we consume media is changing, and because the publishing industry is evolving with it, audiobooks are new territory for some authors. According to a survey from the Audio Publishers Association (APA), audiobook revenue hit $1.6 billion in 2021, the 10th straight year of double-digit growth for the medium. While the number of audiobooks published continues to rise, so has the amount of time listeners spend with audiobooks.

Gigi dives into writing about celebrities and techniques for shaping the POV of a character wildly different from you. Writing About Celebrities Dear Gigi, I am hoping you will be able to help me with a question I have about making mention of celebrities in fictional writing. Would I need to get permission from the celebrity or their estate if they have passed on?

A writing conference is a perfect mix of all the ingredients you need to grow as a writer. It doesn’t matter if you are just beginning or have a thriving writing career; a good conference provides everything, and it all happens over the span of a few days.

When I started grad school at age 30, I barely knew what a personal essay was, let alone how to write one. In my MFA writing workshops, I met people – my age and younger – who were excitedly submitting first-person work while I struggled with even writing “I” on the page. Responding to my first attempt at memoir, my teacher wrote back, “Why is this in the third person?” I wanted to disappear into the narrative, like my news writing usually allowed.