by Kathryn Craft “To expand the reader’s perspective is one of literature’s highest callings. Memoir would be pointless without it. Perspective pervades a journalist’s best quotes, energizes speeches, and makes history worth reading about.” I wrote those sentences in a handout for one of my earliest conference presentations, after noticing that my developmental editing clients […] The post Perspective Will Drive Your Story Forward appeared first on Women Writers, Women's Books.| Women Writers, Women's Books
By Caroline Lea I once tried to revise a sex scene while cooking dinner for my family. Reader, it was a disaster: the chicken was burned and had to be binned; the characters lost interest in each other. Everyone cried. In an ideal world, the mythical figure of the writing mother would also be an […] The post The Baby’s Cry, the Blank Page, and the Myth of the Writing Mother appeared first on Women Writers, Women's Books.| Women Writers, Women's Books
The Betrayal Angelette Arabella has spent her life in the shadow of the man the nation calls a hero—her father, Valerius, the revered leader of Libertis. To the world, he’s a savior. To her, he’s simply “Dad.” But when a staged kidnapping spirals into something far more dangerous, Angelette is forced to face the truth: […] The post Authors Interviewing Characters: Heather Ogden appeared first on Women Writers, Women's Books.| Women Writers, Women's Books
By Shigeko Ito In the midst of an unexpectedly tumultuous middle-aged motherhood, I stumbled upon creative writing—a lifeline that helped me gradually emerge from a dark tunnel of stress, anxiety, and depression. Putting pen to paper allowed me to delve into the past, uncovering the root cause of my struggles. Little did I know that […] The post Author’s Note: From Surviving to Thriving appeared first on Women Writers, Women's Books.| Women Writers, Women's Books
By Barbara Benish Writing is not my primary communication nor form of expression: it is visual arts. Learning the magic of lines-drawing- was, like for most children, my primary experience of making. But I do remember vividly the magic of learning to read and write, of putting letters together to make meaning. It’s one of […] The post Some Notes on Writing appeared first on Women Writers, Women's Books.| Women Writers, Women's Books
By Shanna Hatfield Books have been a wonderful source of adventure for as long as I can remember. My mother shared her love of books with me, reading to me most every night as a young child. When I was old enough to read the books myself, my favorite stories were those that brought the […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
Louise Erdrich’s Pulitzer Prizewinning The night watchman is historical fiction about a community fighting back against a government set on “terminating them”. Erdrich, whom I have reviewed before, is an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota and it is the story of this community’s response to something called the … Continue reading Louise Erdrich, The night watchman (#BookReview)| Whispering Gums
Gertrude Mack is the third of the Mack literary sisters, and by far the least known, though at the time she was well-recognised, with her activities and thoughts frequently reported in the newspapers. Her “disappearance” from view is most likely because, unlike her sisters, all her writing was for newspapers and magazines. She did not … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Forgotten writers 14, Gertrude Mack| Whispering Gums
In the first decades of the 20th century, a family of sisters made some splash on Australia’s literary scene. I have already written about the eldest of them – Louise Mack – but there were also Amy (this post’s subject) and Gertrude, all of whom appeared in newspapers of the time as writers of interest. … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Forgotten writers 13, Amy Mack| Whispering Gums
By Melissa Meszaros Internet dating should not exist without a relationship jail. If you fail to comply with who you say you are, there should be consequences, a fraudulent misrepresentation suit, maybe. Technology upgrades, but lies stay the same. I work in public relations, a polishing job. I can take anyone’s half-formed thought and spin […] The post Song Over The Bones: Silence As Reclamation appeared first on Women Writers, Women's Books.| Women Writers, Women's Books
Journalist Caroline McGhie got to explore Victorian attitudes to women’s rights, sexual freedom, religion, art and pornography when writing her debut novel The Sitter. But has anything changed since 1900? How a woman copes after she has been taken advantage of has long been a subject of interest for writers of women’s fiction. More recently […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
Hello Readers & Friends, Have any of you been saying all week long: I can’t believe it’s October?! I have. How was your September? Ours was busy with trips to New York and the mountains out west. The fall foliage gets me every single time. The sound of a rippling river. The crisp air. The […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
By Leslie Kain In the middle of stressful times, do you read escapist novels? Or stories with characters you can’t stop thinking about, stories that pull you in and won’t let you go? In 2021, a book critic declared the “trauma plot” was dead, suggesting it’s a trope that reduces characters to “a set of […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
As with many writers, I read voraciously as a kid, particularly Nancy Drew mysteries. I even made my own little editions with crayon-drawn covers and stories bound with staples. In a time where women’s career choices were narrowly defined and did not include mystery/thriller writer, I became an educator and later an administrator, both interesting […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
By Anusia Gillespie At 29, I quit my law firm job with six-figure debt and no backup plan. Something had shifted. A meditation as part of a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program cracked something open in me, like a champagne cork popping, and there was no going back. It was as if I’d glimpsed behind […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
RESTITUTION As children in Central Illinois, Kate and Martin were never told much about their mother’s childhood in East Germany. And they rarely asked questions. Decades later in 1989, when the Berlin Wall falls, Kate and Martin are faced with a difficult decision: Should they try to reclaim the house in East Germany from which their grandparents fled […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
HELLO WIFE Single, unfulfilled and well into middle age, long-troubled Charlotte Lansing desperately reaches for love and acceptance. When she announces her engagement to an unemployed morphine addict, her family falls into a tailspin. Her mother is determined to prevent disaster, her father seeks to mend the growing chasm, and her sister stubbornly hopes that […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
Margie Goldsmith, author of “Becoming a Badass: From Fearful to Fierce.” Covid hit. Most of my magazine assignments were experiential travel stories, but with all travel cancelled, now would be the perfect time to write a memoir. Yet, every famous actor, film star and rock star was writing their life story. Who was I? And […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
by Diane Hartman When I began my memoir, Getting Lost On My Way: Self-Discovery on Ireland’s Backroads, many years ago, I envisioned it as being a book of essays weaved together by a common thread –my four solo trips to Ireland over a period of seven years. I kept a journal during my travels and […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
When I began this story, I thought it would be my fifth rather than sixth book. But as other authors know to happen, life interrupted. I did know that Celia, a character from my “novel in stories” Humanity’s Grace, had more in her. And maybe character Paul did too? This felt like my compulsion to […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
By Heather Snograss Music has a way of weaving its way through all of our lives like thread. Some may use it as background noise while they are studying, working, or even to fall asleep. I am a person who retains what I read with music in the background and that is one reason I like […]| Women Writers, Women's Books
In the first decades of the 20th century, a family of sisters made some splash on Australia’s literary scene. I have already written about the eldest of them – Louise Mack – but t…| Whispering Gums
Click here on 8/21 for Zoom Link Alisa Alering is the author of the novel “Smothermoss,” (Tin House, 2024) a Shirley Jackson Award finalist that the New York Times Book Review calls …| Storyknife Writers Retreat
Titles are intriguing things, and we don’t always pay them the attention they deserve, but the title of Australian writer Andrea Goldsmith’s ninth novel, The buried life, is worth think…| Whispering Gums
Click here to watch on July 17 Join us on Thursday, July 17 at 6pm Alaska time for Live from Storyknife featuring July’s writers in residence. The session will be live on Zoom and the recordi…| Storyknife Writers Retreat
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's "Ladyland"| The Monstrous Regiment of Women
A note on the Italian writer Antonia Pulci.| www.monstrousregimentofwomen.com
We’re so thrilled for our dear friend and WB team member, Susan Johnston Taylor who currently has a plethora of good news worth celebrating! Congratulations, Susan. Please share your exciting […]| Writing Barn
We’re so excited for Nadia Salomon whose NF picture book, A VOICE OF HOPE won the BCALA, SLJ 2025 Children & Youth Literacy Award for non-fiction and a CBC 2025 […]| Writing Barn
Looking for a women's writing retreat? We've got you covered with this list. Go North, South, East, or West—there's something for everyone!| The Write Life
Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.Here's this month's list of 16 releases we're excited about!| Ms. Magazine
At just 25 years old, horror writer Lore V. Olivera is already on her way to both television and film success. Currently staffed on the upcoming Amazon show El Gato, based on... The post How Lore V. Olivera Discovered the Path to TV Writing Through Coverfly appeared first on Coverfly.| Coverfly
Time for an update of what I’ve been reading lately: three recent publications by women writers that are each, in their own way, unusual and engrossing reads. First up: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, her first novel since The Night Circus, which was a favorite of mine. With The Starless Sea, Morgenstern has written a deeply felt and […]| Shannon Turlington