Tag Archives: inspiration

By Melissa Uhl Draut Photograph by Melissa Uhl Draut   On my bathroom shelf sits a two-and-a-half-inch cream colored Limoges pitcher with a sepia image of the Café de Cluny in Paris — a gift from my French teacher Miss Ridge when I was an elementary school student. Only Miss Ridge could pick out something so lovely and practical. It’s ...

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By Janet L. Boyd       Recently, while sorting through 27 years of accumulated detritus in my closet, I found a piece of gray textured cardstock that had been cut into a small business card. Written on it in blue ink were a name and address – Billie Jean Young, Jackson, Mississippi. It wasn’t my handwriting. Residue from tape ...

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By Lorraine Waldau     The hanging stretches a full twenty-eight feet over the bare museum wall. Colors dripping at different lengths wound around shapes almost obscuring the words. Coming closer, the dripping fabric wrapped around words reveals itself. Thousands and thousands of colored and worn shoelaces. Everyone has at one time, or another worn shoelaces, haven’t they? The words ...

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  By Janet L. Boyd Membership Coordinator of Women Who Write, Inc. When my kitchen phone rang one afternoon in 1993, I wasn’t surprised to hear my brother’s voice on the line. He traveled extensively for work, owned an early version of the now ubiquitous mobile phone, and often called me from the road. “Hey,” he said, “I’m in a ...

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  By Katie Odom   I don’t know how to start. I stare at the blank paper between my hands. I pick up the pen, hold it loosely, hover the point over the paper, and set the pen down.  I study the grain of the wood within the table. Lines swirl, curl, and flow from this side to that. My ...

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  By Janel Boyd   When I am an old(er) woman, I shall wear yoga pants with impunity and t-shirts of the softest Pima cotton and flip flops every day. I’ll pull my coarse white hair into a ponytail without combing it. Or make a thick braid to fit under the sloppy straw hat I’ll wear when I garden in ...

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  By Irene Sulyevich First published in Landslide Lit(erary) publication on Medium.com (Note: on the Medium.com platform, the writer retains full rights to her story. Reprints, thus, are permitted) When a war in Ukraine began two weeks ago, I got a lot of calls and messages asking how I feel about this conflict. While appreciating the thoughtfulness and support from ...

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  By Alisa Childress   First published on An Injustice! On Medium.com (Note: on the Medium.com platform, the writer retains full rights to her story. Reprints, thus, are permitted) https://medium.com/an-injustice/scotus-and-the-future-of-women-thoughts-from-a-progressive-in-a-red-state-2deb11a83987   When my son was born, over 19 years ago, my mother, as all proud new grandmothers do, came to the hospital to see us. I was induced overnight Friday ...

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  by Alisa Richie Childress My dad was terrified for months before turning seventy years old. His birthday is in mid-October, amidst back to school and Halloween and just before the other, bigger holidays. Because of this, I was never consistent about celebrating him. Some years, I would fix dinner for him and my stepmom. Some years, I would buy ...

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by Pam Lafollette   As I work on revision #437 of my novel-in-progress, I reflect on what it took to get this manuscript to where it is today. My first novel was 485,000 words: about the size of War and Peace and riddled with the inherent mistakes of a novice—telling-not-showing, meandering prose, lack of conflict, lack of pacing, overuse of ...

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