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Category Archives: Literary Gallery

Mary B. Kurtz on Writing and Publishing Apertures, Findings From a Rural Life

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 2, 2023 by Mary KurtzMarch 2, 2023

My Path to Publication of Apertures: Findings from a Rural Life from Shanti Arts Publishing, September 2022 Premise My book, Apertures: Findings from a Rural Life, is a memoir-in-essays, following the examples of David Lazar’s Body of Brooklyn and Harrison … Continue reading →

Posted in 2023, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, Published | 2 Replies

Nowhere But Up from Here

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 17, 2022 by Pat DetmerNovember 17, 2022

Nowhere But Up from Here Dinner was ready to serve. Turkey, dressing, spices, pumpkin pie … the traditional Thanksgiving smells wafted through my sister’s small suburban home. It was nearly dark out. The cloudy day had dampened the sunset and … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery | 4 Replies

My First Thanksgiving When Mom Was My GUEST!

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 17, 2022 by Barbara SimmonsNovember 17, 2022

It was the year I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, leaving the boarding school where I’d been teaching in western Massachusetts. I was living in an apartment – actually, the 2nd floor of an old home that had been carved into … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery | Tagged memoir, personal essay, women's voices | 6 Replies

Turkey Musings by Writing It Real Member Mona Anderson

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 10, 2022 by Mona AndersonNovember 10, 2022

In autumn turkeys grace the field in front of our house almost daily.  Lately, these visitors, often up to twenty-five, have come closer to the house, maybe to forage fallen apples from the tree in the front yard.  Or maybe … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery | Tagged memoir, narration, personal essay | 4 Replies

Thanksgiving at Our House by Writing It Real Member Suzy Beal

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 10, 2022 by Suzy BealNovember 10, 2022

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, hey, you guys, Mom made seven pies this time, two cherry, two apple and three pumpkin!  She made cinnamon rolls and bread, too.”  We had to wait to eat until Uncle Mac, Aunt Mim and the cousins arrived. The whole house was warm and damp with odors wafting … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2014 | Tagged memoir, narration, personal essay

It Wasn’t the Tryptophan by Writing It Real Member Patricia LaPointe

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 10, 2022 by Patricia LaPointeNovember 10, 2022

In mid-October 1969, my twin daughters were born a month early. After a few days in the hospital, we brought them home. What followed were days and nights filled with them drinking only an ounce or two of formula before … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery | Tagged memoir, narration, personal essay | 2 Replies

Marlene Samuels Remembers a Terrifying Begger’s Night (Canada’s Halloween)

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 6, 2022 by Marlene B. SamuelsOctober 6, 2022

Things that Go Grrrr in the Night by Marlene Samuels One particular year, Beggar’s Night fell on a Saturday. As luck would have it, it also was the Saturday evening our parents had, uncharacteristically, left us home alone longer than … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery | 4 Replies

Writing It Real Member Julie Trout’s “Happier Halloweens”

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 30, 2022 by JulieHayward-TroutSeptember 30, 2022

Happier Halloweens by Julie Trout Jake was happy with any holiday, but Kirsten had a favorite. Halloween. We dressed up, carved pumpkins, baked goodies, ate candy, and decorated the house with spiderwebs and green glitter. I loved watching my kids … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery | 4 Replies

Pat LaPointe Remembers A Very Green Halloween

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 29, 2022 by Patricia LaPointeSeptember 30, 2022

It Wasn’t Easy Being Green by Pat LaPointe Many people might call Mom “creative.” As a witness and often the “victim” of her creativity, I would define it as “wacko.” One would need no more proof of this distinction than … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery | 3 Replies

Back-to-School Memory from David Horowitz

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 22, 2022 by David D. HorowitzSeptember 22, 2022

Conversation Starter by David D. Horowitz As a child, I always regretted the end of summer vacation. How I loved waking late, playing softball until dusk, and gathering afterward with friends for sodas, ice cream, and raucous conversation. School offered … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, Literary Gallery | 2 Replies

Back-to-School Memory by Julia Blocksma

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 8, 2022 by Julia BlocksmaSeptember 8, 2022

Memoir:  First Grade by Julia Blocksma My enthusiasm knew no bounds: I was going to start first grade, in a school in America! After years in Lahore, Pakistan, where my father, a surgeon, had helped start a hospital just after World … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery | Tagged personal essay | 5 Replies

Kathy Harmon-Luber on Writing Her Book Suffering to Thriving: Your Tool Kit for Navigating Your Healing Journey

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 1, 2022 by Kathy LuberSeptember 1, 2022

I am pleased to publish my interview with author Kathy Harmon-Luber, a colleague, poet, and non-fiction writer whose book will touch many. Hearing from her on how she approached writing her book, organized her effort to write it, and then … Continue reading →

Posted in 2022, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, Member Publications | 1 Reply

Telephone: essays in two voices by Brenda Miller and Julie Marie Wade

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 4, 2021 by Brenda MillerNovember 5, 2021

Authors Brenda Miller and Julie Marie Wade have published a book of collaborative essays rich in imagery and music. Published by Cleveland State University Poetry Center, Telephone: essays in two voices is, according to award-winning poet and essayist, Hanif Abdurraqib, “a stellar example of what can be achieved in collaborative work where two voices figure … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2021 | Tagged memoir, on writing, personal essay

Author Tarn Wilson on Writing Her Memoir In Praise of Inadequate Gifts And a Generous Excerpt

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 2, 2021 by Tarn WilsonSeptember 3, 2021

I was very fortunate to receive my copy of Tarn Wilson’s new book, In Praise of Inadequate Gifts, a Memoir in Essays the day before I left for 11 days of wandering beaches along the Oregon Coast. On the road with my husband driving to the next beach town, I thought about the chapter of … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, WIR2021, Writing Makes a Difference | Tagged memoir, on writing, personal essay, women's voices

Writing Oral History and Beyond to Personal Essay

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 5, 2021 by Sheila BenderAugust 5, 2021

Years ago, before my father died of Parkinson’s disease, I interviewed him about his life as a young man and wrote what I now see as an oral history. Twenty years after his death, I have revisited that piece and tightened it. And I have revisited and tightened a revision of it I did that … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, WIR2021 | Tagged personal essay

Excerpt and Words from Brenda Miller About Her New Book A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 1, 2021 by Brenda MillerJuly 6, 2021

I am so pleased to share news of Brenda Miller’s new book, A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form, available now for pre-order ahead of the July 13 release date. She has answered questions I posed to her and shared an excerpt from the book. A contributor to Writing It Real over many years, … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2021 | Tagged memoir, on writing, personal essay, trust your writing, writing life

Joanne Clarkson Shares Her Practice of Poetry and Several of Her Poems

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 8, 2021 by Sheila BenderMay 7, 2021

In March, my husband and I ran into Joanne while we were out walking and she was returning home from a walk. Over the CDC prescribed distance, we remembered the radio interview she had done with me for KPTZ, and I asked if she would be interested in a Zoom interview for the pandemic National … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2021 | Tagged women's voices, Writing Poetry

Meet Author James Sulzer, Novelist of Emily Dickinson and John Keats

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 1, 2021 by Sheila BenderMay 7, 2021

Today is the first day of National Poetry Month 2021. I am posting an interview with James Sulzer, a remarkable writer, who spoke with me about writing two novels that not only celebrate two of history’s favorite and most influential poets but provide original ways of helping us understand their lives and hear in the … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2021 | Tagged reading for writing, Writing Fiction

About Creating and Performing “Is Story of Poor Sea Village Girl,” a Play by Writing It Real Member Mara Lathrop

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 4, 2021 by Sheila BenderApril 8, 2021

Writing It Real member Mara Lathrop created a project during the pandemic that offers us a chance to experience her play Is Story of Poor Sea Village Girl directed by Cynthia Stokes and performed by SAG actors, Mark Lewis and Abby Dylan. This month’s article includes a recorded “backstage” interview with the playwright and the … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2021 | Tagged women's voices, Writing Scenes

Writing in Vignettes Can Generate a Book Length Memoir

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 4, 2021 by Marilea C. RabasaFebruary 4, 2021

In 2018 and 19, I worked with Writing It Real member Marilea C. Rabasa consulting on a second memoir she was compelled to write and wanted very much to get right. She wasn’t happy with the way it was unwinding and together we began the journey of finding a structure for the work that could … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, Member Publications, WIR2021 | Tagged women's voices, writing memoir

“Mother,” an essay from Helen Goehring’s Collection Transformed by Grief

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 5, 2020 by EllenDecember 17, 2020

I am pleased to share an essay by Writing It Real member Helen Donnelly Goehring from her recently published collection, Transformed by Grief: A Personal History. Helen’s essay “Taking Notes: Assisted Living” was a winner in Writing It Real’s 2012 essay writing contest. Eight years later, she has a whole collection out! Many of us … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, Member Publications, WIR2020 | Tagged memoir, personal essay, women's voices

No Guarantees by Jennifer Jamieson Woods — Chapter 40

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 1, 2020 by Jennifer Jamieson WoodsOctober 2, 2020

Chapter 40 of No Guarantees Josie went to work as usual on Monday morning. Although she was a person who found comfort in the predictable rhythm of life, today she felt irritated and bored with her life. She felt stuck at Casey’s without any alternative. She was going to have to divorce Rod. She didn’t … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2020 | Tagged women's voices

A Reading and a Print Interview with What Love Feels Like Authors Dave Cunningham and C.K.Tyler

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 3, 2020 by Sheila BenderSeptember 4, 2020

I am delighted to introduce authors Dave Cunningham and C.K. Tyler who have collaborated on a newly published novel entitled What Loves Feels Like: The Dawn of Human 2.0. In the video below and the Q&A following, the two speak to their experience of writing the book in collaboration and its short journey to publication. … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, The Working Writer, WIR2020, Writers Building a Community of Readers, Writing Makes a Difference | Tagged Writing Fiction

PDF, E-Reader and Kindle Version Downloads Available for On Mishearing: Miseries, Mysteries and Misbehaviors

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 14, 2020 by Sheila BenderAugust 19, 2020

The Writing It Real August 2020 article is a compilation of writings by Writing It Real members for On Mishearing: Miseries, Mysteries, and Misbehaviors. EBook Formats We will soon have three different formats available. Which one you choose depends on how you intend to read the anthology. But for now, only the PDF is operational. … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2014

Prologue to Reclaiming Venus: The Many Lives of Alvenia Bridges

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 8, 2020 by Maya SmithAugust 13, 2020

  You may have already read Maya Smith’s description of how she is approaching the writing of her book about the life of Alvenia Bridges, a woman of many lives. She answered questions about obstacles and joys of writing the book as well as how she used her academic research training to approach her interviews … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2020 | Tagged memoir

How and Why We Write

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 5, 2020 by Sheila BenderAugust 13, 2020

The Writing It Real March 2020 article is a compilation of writings by Writing It Real members on a topic dear to our hearts–how and why we write. EBook Formats We have 3 different formats. Which ones you choose depends on how you intend to read the anthology. Print on Paper If you want to … Continue reading →

To access this post, you must purchase Online Personal Essay Writing Workshop + Membership, Development and Line Editing, Yesim Cimcoz Where Story Begins + Membership, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 11:00AM, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor – How Editing Helps You Find Your Way + Membership 2:00PM, Poetry Writing Workshop + Membership, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 2:00PM, In-Class Writing and Responses – Your Writing Will Surprise You! + Membership 11:00 AM, Summer Reading Summer Writing Plus Membership, Write More Healthy Starts Plus Membership, You: Writing in the 2nd Person Online Workshop Plus Membership, Keep Goin’ On Your Writing over the Holidays Plus Membership, Writing for Young Readers Plus Membership, Introduction to Scrivener — Plus Membership, Writing Healthy Starts + Membership, Eight Half-Hour Consults + Membership, Befriending the Giant + Membership or Write! Write! Write! Writing Exercises for Writing Prose from Personal Experience + Membership.

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, The Working Writer, WIR2020 | Tagged on writing, women's voices, writing life

Tell It Slant: Author Brenda Miller on Writing Creative Nonfiction and a Generous Excerpt from the Book

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on December 5, 2019 by Brenda MillerDecember 13, 2019

Introduction to an Excerpt from Tell it Slant (Available from Powell’s and Amazon as well as your favorite bookseller). By Brenda Miller In 2001, when Suzanne Paola and I began talking about writing a textbook for creative nonfiction, no such book existed. We had been cobbling together our own instructional materials for years, and together … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, WIR2014, WIR2019 | Tagged memoir, personal essay, Trusting Images, Writing Craft Tools, writing exercises

Writing Between Paragraphs An Essay Forms

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 3, 2019 by Sheila BenderOctober 6, 2019

This week, wanting so much to write on the day that would have been my son’s 44th birthday, but not knowing how to put my heart-filled words on the page, I reread “Canoe” by Sherrie Flick, a story in 446 words about a daughter grieving her father. Those words ultimately inspired an essay for me … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2019

Excerpt From Molly Tinsley’s Novel Things Too Big to Name, Followed by a Q&A wth the Author

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 5, 2019 by Molly B. TinsleySeptember 5, 2019

This spring, thrilled to be reading a new novel by Molly Best Tinsley, both a teaching colleague and Writing It Real contributor, I was even more thrilled to have found a novel that I could not put down from the moment I began reading to the moment I read the very last word on the … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, The Working Writer, WIR2014, WIR2019

Writing the Emotionally Important Scenes

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 1, 2019 by Sheila BenderSeptember 1, 2019

A Princeton professor I once read while for some reason I had no pen or device to record his name and the name of the article wrote that when we read a novel we are speeding up time as one book can contain may days, months, and years. But when we write, he said, we … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, The Working Writer, WIR2019

Learning from Others’ Pieces Written in the Second Person

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 16, 2019 by Sheila BenderMay 16, 2019

A participant in my recent online class,”You: Writing in the Second Person” shared a website with us: Dead Housekeeping: Moody Home Tips, which features a string of short pieces in the second person contributed by writers on subjects as disparate as how to feed the yellow cat, how to have a house guest, and how … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, WIR2019

In My Opinion: Letter to My Husband’s Uncle

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 9, 2019 by Sheila BenderMay 10, 2019

5/9/19 Hello Harlan, We had a wonderful time recently celebrating my mother’s 92nd birthday with my daughter’s family and her in-laws, who have moved from the Midwest to a town just north of Seattle to be near their son and grandsons. They are originally from the southern part of India and came here years ago … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2019, Writing Makes a Difference | Tagged Epistolary writing, Informational Writing, personal essay

A Note from 40 Years of Teaching Myself and Others to Write

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 25, 2019 by Sheila BenderApril 25, 2019

Sometimes I go to sleep with my heart full of sadness. A student’s poem that day about a bicycling daughter killed by a bus as it made a turn, someone’s essay about losing her son to a strep infection that went to his heart, and someone else’s essay about grieving the mother she had and … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2019 | Tagged on writing, writing advice

“Sanctuary,” Contest Winning Essay by Nancy Lamb

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 28, 2019 by Nancy LambMarch 29, 2019

Our guest judge Holly Hughes, wrote this about Nancy Lamb’s essay: In this essay, the narrator recalls her first visit to Martin’s Ranch in the red rock canyons high above Santa Fe and her first experience with the landscape as sanctuary that’s still part of her today. In fresh descriptive language, the writer brings us … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2019

Tender is the Harvest, A Winning Essay by Laurie McConnachie

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 21, 2019 by Laurie McConnachieMarch 23, 2019

Our contest judge Holly Hughes  wrote these words in choosing Laurie McConnachie’s essay as one of our three winners: This is a deeply moving account of a daughter who lost her mother to a brain tumor when she was in her late 20s—and how she learns to move through grief and open her heart to … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2019 | Tagged contest winning essay, memoir, personal essay, women's voices

Beginning Again with Tree Spirits by Katlaina Rayne

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 14, 2019 by Katlaina RayneMarch 14, 2019

I am pleased to share another essay by a Writing It Real member. “Beginning Again with Tree Spirits” illustrates the diverse topics our members write about. Reading Katlaina’s essay will definitely change your relationship to the trees and forests in your towns and counties as well as inspire courage to write about topics you fear … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2019 | Tagged memoir, personal essay, women's voices

Creative Writing: Carpe diem, quam minimum, credula postera

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 7, 2019 by Gary LangfordMarch 7, 2019

I met poet, novelist, and playwright Gary Langford through a long time friend of mine who met Gary years ago in Australia when they were both young men. In the years since, Gary has written in many genres, run a University Creative Writing Program, taught theater, and much, much more. Here he breaks down writing … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2019 | Tagged on writing, writing advice, writing inspiration

The Past is Always in the Present, A New Year’s Greeting

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on December 27, 2018 by Sheila BenderDecember 31, 2018

About the size of my palm, the orange glass turtle with stout yellow feet has been with me since 1972. We started out in Matawan, New Jersey, where my 7th-grade class presented him to me as a goodbye gift–I was moving to the West Coast with my husband, a transferring medical student. The turtle was … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2018 | Tagged personal essay, Trusting Images

In a Season of Lists, Write a Litany to Help Yourself Keep Writing

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on December 20, 2018 by Sheila BenderDecember 20, 2018

It is holiday time and amidst the tornado-like whirl of shopping, decorating, traveling, baking, cooking, and gathering with family, friends, colleagues and community, of offering help in shelters and churches, it may seem hard to write. And even harder still to write to discover what is at the bottom of our hearts and minds. The … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, WIR2018 | Tagged Writing Craft Tools, writing exercises, writing inspiration, Writing Poetry

To Love the World and Let the World Love You: August Advice for Writing Poetry

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 16, 2018 by Sheila BenderAugust 16, 2018

August is the Gregorian calendar month named after the Roman Augustus Caesar, the man responsible for spreading the Roman Empire over the earth. He wrote about his great accomplishments, writings some think of as the typical age-old boastings of a politician. However, others wrote after his death that upon innumerable occasions he donated money to … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2018 | Tagged Trusting Images, Writing Poetry

Nahid Rachlin on Her Writing With Generous Excerpts from Her Memoir

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 9, 2018 by Nahid RachlinAugust 9, 2018

This past weekend, I was in conversation with fiction writer and memoirist Nahid Rachlin about her books and writing career. for my radio show on KPTZ ?In Conversation: Discussions on Writing and the Writing Life.? It had been over a decade since she and I had last held an interview, printed in The Writer?s Chronicle … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, WIR2018 | Tagged memoir, on writing, women's voices, writing memoir

“Talk Much?” by Morgan Baker 3rd Place Winner

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 26, 2018 by Morgan BakerApril 26, 2018

When our 2018 winter contest judge Kelli Agodon awarded 3rd Place to Morgan Baker’s personal essay “Talk Much?” she commented: As someone who loves finding words inside of words and who has struggled with dyslexia, I thought “Talk Much?” was an intriguing look at what the world (or the words) look like through dyslexia. The … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2018

“Driving Home” by Barbara Simmons, 2nd Place Tie Winner, Winter 2018 Contest

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 19, 2018 by Barbara SimmonsApril 19, 2018

Our fall/winter 2018 contest judge Kelli Agodon felt that two poems tied for 2nd place. We posted one last week, ?Grave Site Visit? by Nancy Levinson, and this week we are posting the second second-place winning poem, Barbara Simmons “Driving Home.” Kelli wrote this about her choice of Barbara?s poem: “Driving Home” is a lovely … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2018 | Tagged contest winner, women's voices, Writing Poetry

“Grave Site Visit” by Nancy Smiler Levinson, 2018 Winter Contest Winner

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 13, 2018 by Nancy Smiler LevinsonApril 27, 2018

One of two writings tied for second place in our fall/winter 2018 writing contest is “Gravesite Visit,” a poem by Writing It Real member Nancy Levinson. Our guest judge Kelli Agondon described her choice this way: “Gravesite Visit” is a beautiful meditation on the healing powers of poetry and how poems (and writing) can help … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2018 | Tagged contest winner, Trusting Images, women's voices, Writing Poetry

“Disturbing the Calm” by Judith Kvinsland, 1st Place

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 5, 2018 by Judy KvinslandApril 5, 2018

Our contest judge, Kelli Agodon, wrote this of her first choice piece in the fall/winter 2018 writing contest: Judith Barker Kvinsland’s essay, “Disturbing the Calm,” explores how sometimes, despite the ease of our lives, we need to take a risk. It is a thoughtful exploration of family, responsibility, and location, where the author learns something … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2018 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay, personal essay

Omniscient Narrator–Have fun with the all-seeing!

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 15, 2018 by Sheila BenderMarch 22, 2018

I’ve made a short video for a program called 11 Stories that has “aired” for the people in that program. I am sharing it with Writing It Real members this week. In the video, I give a lesson on the third-person omniscient point of view in writing.  I think those of you writing flash nonfiction or fiction … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2018 | Tagged reading for writing, Writing Craft Tools

A Writer’s Digest Prize-Winning Essay

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 8, 2018 by Vicki HortonMarch 8, 2018

Who among us wouldn?t envy the stamp of approval Vicki Horton?s personal essay ?Fishing with My Father? received from Writer?s Digest magazine in 2016? In answer to some of my questions about this writing and her writing life, Vicki responded: As you know writing is done mostly in isolation. I am my worst critic and … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2018 | Tagged contest winner, reading for writing, women's voices

One More Waltz, An Essay by Nancy Lamb

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 17, 2017 by Nancy LambSeptember 17, 2017

There are times in a person’s life when everything is tinted gray and the future looks too dark to step into. Then in one single shift of the universe, something happens—we turn left, instead of right; we answer the phone, smile at a stranger, or meet an old lover. Something moves. And the light reappears. … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2017 | Tagged personal essay, women's voices

“Sanctuary,” an Essay by Nancy Lamb

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 17, 2017 by Nancy LambSeptember 17, 2017

All of us benefit from the memory of a place held dear. Such a memory keeps us breathing; such a memory calms our nerves; such a memory refreshes when life’s difficult times enervate us. Read Nancy Lamb’s well-drawn description of Cow Creek Canyon, a place she experienced as a child, and then try your hand … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2017

Game Stories: A Prompt that Works

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 14, 2017 by Sheila BenderSeptember 14, 2017

Two weeks ago, I posted an article with writing ideas for getting started on new material and asked those who wanted to do so to send me accounts of the games they have played and enjoyed, especially in childhood. My thanks to Nancy Levinson, author of Moments of Dawn: A Poetic Memoir of Love & … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2017 | Tagged writing exercises, writing inspiration

“Grave Matters”: Mary Ann Payne’s Writing Exercise Result

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on June 8, 2017 by Mary Ann PayneJune 8, 2017

I am pleased to share long-time Writing It Real member Mary Ann Payne?s writing in response to the writing exercise I shared last week. Grave Matters by Mary Ann Payne It?s time to bury the piano. Chop it up in tiny pieces and put it in a deep hole in the backyard next to the … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2017 | Tagged reading for writing, trust your writing, writing exercises

Contest Winner Linda Robertson’s Poems

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 25, 2017 by Linda M. RobertsonMay 27, 2017

In our final week of posting contest entries from the fall/winter WIR writing contest, we have seven poems by Linda M. Robertson. Our contest judge Sharon Bryan wrote this about selecting these poems as winners: These poems speak in a voice that makes me want to listen to everything it says. They are so well-crafted that … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2017 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay, Writing Poetry

“Long Meg Speaks” by Emma Hunter, a Winning Essay in the Fall/Winter WIR Contest

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 18, 2017 by Emma HunterMay 19, 2017

Our fall/winter writing contest guest judge Sharon Bryan chose Emma Hunter’s essay, “Long Meg Speaks,” as one of three winners. This week, we have the judge’s words about the essay as well as the author’s words about writing it, and, of course, the essay. Emma wrote this in answer to my request for words about … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2017 | Tagged contest winning essay, memoir, personal essay

Writing It Real Fall/Winter Contest Winner Dorothy Ross’ “A Night at the Plaza”

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 11, 2017 by Dorothy RossMay 18, 2017

[I will be posting the work of our recent three winners this week and then for the next two weeks. I hope you enjoy their comments about the writing of their work, our contest judge Sharon Byran’s comments, and, of course, the writing. – Ed.] Here is Dorothy Ross on why she is writing the … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2017 | Tagged contest winner, Writing Fiction

Poetry and Essays by Carol Smallwood: Observer, Librarian, Philosopher

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 27, 2017 by Carol SmallwoodApril 27, 2017

Librarian, poet and author Carol Smallwood came to my attention over the years when she emailed calls for essays to consider for anthologies she was editing. I was very pleased to learn about these anthologies and very pleased when she accepted my essays for inclusion in Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2017

Sheila Reads Her Poems for National Poetry Month

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 6, 2017 by Sheila BenderApril 6, 2017

For National Poetry Month, tonight I am reading from my own poetry at the link below. For me poetry is an everyday experience and so there aren’t any huge production values or perfect lighting in this video. Just me sharing my poems and talking to you about what I hope poetry accomplishes for humanity. You can … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2017, Writing Makes a Difference | Tagged Writing Poetry

The Way I See It

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 9, 2017 by Sheila BenderMarch 9, 2017

“The Way I See It” is the “Prologue” from Writing Personal Essays: Sharing and Shaping Your Life Experience, Published in print and digitally by Sheila Bender’s Writing It Real, March, 2017 [Note: I wrote a slightly different version of this essay for the 1995 edition of my book. Everything I realized then remains important to … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2017 | Tagged writing inspiration

Writing the Eulogy

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 12, 2017 by Sheila BenderJanuary 12, 2017

As my mother?s 90th birthday approaches, my husband and I have sorted through photographs from nine decades of her life. He is making a photo essay book to be given to her this Sunday and shared with guests at the … Continue reading →

Posted in 2017, Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery | Tagged writing advice, Writing Poetry | 2 Replies

Why I Want to Write

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on December 8, 2016 by Katherine ClarkeDecember 9, 2016

[Editor’s note: Sometimes I teach a class for Women on Writing that I call “Writing is a Friend with Extraordinary Benefits.” The following essay by Katherine Clarke is reprinted with permission of the author, is an example of what happens in this class — one writer’s words offering extraordinary benefits for each of us who write.] Like many people … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2016 | Tagged trust your writing, women's voices, writing inspiration

A Passion for Writing Might Save Us in These Times

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 22, 2016 by Sheila BenderNovember 27, 2016

What are we writers to do in a nation where so many young and old seem to have gone mad, publically shouting and bullying, using crude names for those of the female sex and for people of non-Christian religions and for people of color — here in a country where over decades we?ve: Passed legislation … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2016 | Tagged trust your writing, writing inspiration

Making Books from Lists Part II: Adam Diament’s Kosher Patents

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 11, 2016 by Sheila BenderAugust 11, 2016

Adam L. Diament, the author of Kosher Patents: 101 Ingenious Inventions to Help Jews be Jewish, is a practicing patent attorney in Beverly Hills, California. He earned a B.A. in Religious Studies with an Emphasis in Judaism from the University of California, Berkeley in 1997 and a law degree from the University of San Diego … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, The Working Writer, WIR2014, WIR2016 | Tagged Informational Writing

Writing the Dear Mom Letter with Deborah Berger

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 14, 2016 by Deborah BergerJuly 14, 2016

 Deborah Berger asked women to write letters about what they never told their mothers.  Ultimately, she edited a selection of the contributions, along with profiles of their authors, into Dear Mom, Women’s Letters of Love, Loss and Longing. In her introduction to the work, she writes, “We are always linked to our mothers: both to … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, WIR2015, WIR2016 | Tagged reading for writing, women's voices, writing exercises

Excerpt from Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Fantasies & Hard Knocks, My Life as a Printer

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on June 30, 2016 by Gabriel RummondsJune 30, 2016

This book is a big one?in every way. In its 813 beautifully designed pages and over 450 gorgeous photos and images, a story unfolds not only of fine handpress printing but the man who printed works by many great 20th Century writers as well as prepared food for them and others in his own kitchens … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2015, WIR2016 | Tagged memoir, writing inspiration, writing life

Another Fall/Winter Winner: Afrose Ahmed’s “the world did end…we just didn’t notice”

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 24, 2016 by Afrose AhmedMarch 24, 2016

Our fall/winter contest judge Stan Rubin was struck with the lyric qualities in Afrose Ahmed’s entry, “the world did end…we just didn’t notice.” He wrote in his comments: “A gorgeous piece of lyrical writing. The odd but wonderfully sustained angle of vision—post-apocalyptic, witty, and liminal all at once—establishes its own rhythm and deepens to revelation. … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2015, WIR2016

Contest Winner — The Meditation Room

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 17, 2016 by Amanda NobleMarch 17, 2016

Stan Rubin, our guest contest judge, shares these remarks about his choice of Amanda Noble’s essay, “The Meditation Room”: A nuanced portrayal of the shifting stages of private grief––and its gradual acceptance. This process is depicted with precision, intelligence, and sophisticated self-awareness. The writing keeps a sharp focus. A lot of emotional terrain is deftly … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2015, WIR2016

Fall/Winter Writing Contest: Emma Hunter’s “God’s Breath and Bolognese”

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 10, 2016 by Emma HunterMay 19, 2017

Contest judge Stan Rubin, a master teacher, poet and friend of writing, wrote that Emma Hunter’s essay: Gracefully lives up to its rather daunting title, with wit and philosophical sweep. Concisely renders a dual vision — adult and child, the mundane and the cosmic — with natural dialogue and internal reflection, in a realistic scene. The relationships are delicately and … Continue reading →

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Posted in Essay Contest Testimonials, Literary Gallery, WIR2015, WIR2016 | Tagged contest winner, personal essay, writing memoir, Writing Scenes

Finding Form

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 3, 2016 by Sheila BenderMarch 3, 2016

Tarn Wilson delivered this paper for a panel on “Hydra-Headed Memoirs & Well-Connected Essays” at the 2015 Nonfiction Now conference. I am delighted to have her permission to post her words for Writing It Real readers. Tarn’s lovely memoir is The Slow Farm. She uses her experience writing it to inform other writers about her … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, WIR2015, WIR2016 | Tagged memoir, revising writing, writing advice, writing memoir

Excerpt from Route 66, a Nonfiction/Fiction Book Project by Jack Heffron

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 25, 2016 by Sheila BenderFebruary 25, 2016

In this excerpt from Jack Heffron’s book project?that combines fiction and nonfiction, you’ll notice the strength of Jack’s?scenes and dialog, exactly the craft skills?he?will be teaching this year at the June 9-12 Writing It Real conference. In the book, Jack told me, the protagonist, Jack Finney, is a retired advertising executive who recently has been … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2015, WIR2016 | Tagged dialog, fiction, scene building

Excerpt From The Third Law of Motion, a Novel by Meg Files

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 18, 2016 by Sheila BenderFebruary 18, 2016

The opening of Meg Files’ fine novel The Third Law of Motion?introduces the?book’s first-person narrative as we enter protagonist Dulcie White’s life as a college-bound high school student. In alternating chapters throughout the book, the young woman’s sometimes boyfriend, a confused and needy?young man, also narrates, but in the third person. Meg does an expert … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2015, WIR2016 | Tagged women's voices, Writing Fiction, writing in persona

Excerpt from Good Morning Sam by Phyllis M. Washburn

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 27, 2015 by Phyllis M. WashburnOctober 19, 2022

The following is an excerpt from Phyllis M. Washburn’s book Good Morning Sam. In this part of the story, Phyllis and her husband Ralph rescue Sam, a mute swan, from bleeding to death. In all, the couple shared twenty-four years with mute swans and the book documents their time in narrative and photos. To read my interview … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2015 | Tagged memoir

Third Place Winning Essay — Winter Contest 2014

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 18, 2015 by LisaGHunterMarch 18, 2015

This week we present the third place winner in our 2014 Writing It Real Essay Contest. Our guest judge Midge Raymond selected Lisa Hunter’s essay, “Twelve Random Cards: A Self-Portrait in Archetypes.” Midge wrote this about her selection: “This clever self portrait, while a memoir of self-examination and brief stories, also allows us as readers … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2015

Second Place Winning Essay — Winter 2014 Contest

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 11, 2015 by Maureen MistryMarch 11, 2015

We are pleased to post the second place winning essay in this past winter’s Writing It Real essay contest. Our guidelines said the number 12 was to be somewhere in the essay in honor of Writing It Real’s 12th Anniversary. Our guest judge, Midge Raymond, co-founder of Oregon’s Ashland Creek Press, chose Maureen Mistry’s “The … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2015 | Tagged contest winner, personal essay, women's voices

First Place Winning Essay — Winter 2014 Contest

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 4, 2015 by Gillian HerbertMarch 4, 2015

We are pleased to post the winning essay in this past winter’s Writing It Real essay contest. Our guidelines said the number 12 was to be somewhere in the essay in honor of Writing It Real’s 12th Anniversary. Our guest judge Midge Raymond, co-founder of Oregon’s Ashland Creek Press, chose Gillian Herbert’s “Three of Twelve” … Continue reading →

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Posted in Contest Winner, Literary Gallery, WIR2015

Excerpt from Susan Bono’s Collection What Have We Here

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 14, 2015 by Susan BonoJanuary 14, 2015

The following essay by Susan Bono is the title essay from her new collection What Have We Here: Essays about Keeping House and Finding Home. We reprint it this week with her permission. To learn more about Susan’s writing and the place of the personal essay in her writing life, please see last week’s interview. What Have We … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2015 | Tagged personal essay, women's voices

Letter to My Son

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on December 31, 2014 by Sheila BenderDecember 31, 2014

Writing It Real members and students know my love of the epistolary (letter) form in literature and the many examples of it I offer as writing models. During the holiday season, a time of letters from those near and far, I am especially inspired to write to my son, Seth. At the letter’s end, I … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2014 | Tagged personal essay

Grandma’s Fridge

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 5, 2014 by Jennifer WagleyNovember 6, 2014

Years ago, Jennifer Wagley entered a vivid, funny account of her perceptions of her grandmother’s attitudes toward food — buying, keeping, and serving it. It turns out she did this in 12 paragraphs, and as you know, we are celebrating our 12 year Writing It Real anniversary asking for essays that use the number 12. Check our contest guidelines … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2014 | Tagged contest winner, personal essay

The Honor of Writing a Foreword to an Anthology

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 15, 2014 by Sheila BenderOctober 15, 2014

The following is the 2013 foreword I was honored to write for the anthology Times They Were A’Changing: Women Remember the 60s and 70s, edited by Linda Joy Myers, Amber Lea Starfire and Kate Farrell. Paying tribute to the vibrant decades during which I was a college student and next a mom to two young children was certainly a … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2014, Writers Building a Community of Readers, Writing Makes a Difference | Tagged personal essay, women's voices

Last Words, Glenn Fleishman’s Essay on Loss

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 1, 2014 by Glenn FleishmanOctober 1, 2014

Glenn Fleishman’s expertly executed and moving personal essay about the his mother’s death and the last time he saw her will resonate with any of us who are striving to write the details of loss and our lives at the time of our loss. Notice the mix of medical information and terminology, with personal medical … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2014 | Tagged personal essay

My Marital Status

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 17, 2014 by James KullanderJuly 17, 2014

After reading that I’d mentioned an interview he did with Marion Woodman in a Writing It Real article, James Kullander contacted me. After reading the whole article, he offered permission to share another essay originally published in the December 2007 issue of The Sun magazine. “My Marital Status” takes a moving look at love and commitment, at what … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2014 | Tagged personal essay

Writing Your Way in the Back Door: The Painting as Entry

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 28, 2014 by Christine HempMay 28, 2014

Christine Hemp offers us her thinking about how we may find our prose and poetry’s true subjects followed by a writing exercise for practice and two sample poems. [This article and exercise were originally published in Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism and Creative Nonfiction Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers, from Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, edited by Sherry … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, WIR2014 | Tagged Trusting Images, writing advice, writing exercises, Writing Poetry

Celebrating and Learning from Three Wonderful Poets

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 9, 2014 by Sheila BenderApril 9, 2014

It’s National Poetry Month and I am celebrating poets I know whose work I have been following both in their books and by attending readings in my town and surrounding areas. Each of the next weeks, I will publish a poem by each of three of these poets along with their own words about their … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, WIR2014

Michael Shurgot’s 2nd Place Winning Essay “The First Time I Should Have Died”

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 12, 2014 by Michael W. ShurgotFebruary 12, 2014

Our guest judge Molly Tinsley’s notes about choosing Michael Shurgot’s essay for our second-place winner are these: “Great propulsion. The building of tension, the sense of time running out, the hints of questions left unanswered — all are the strategies of an accomplished story-teller. The detachment of the retrospective voice hooked me in further, the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay, personal essay

First Place Winning Essay – “Why I Write” by Mary Kurtz

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 5, 2014 by Mary KurtzFebruary 6, 2014

Our fall/winter writing contest judge, Molly Tinsley, chose “Why I Write,” a personal essay by Mary Kurtz, as our first-place winner. Molly said in her notes about this essay: “Emotional control of the narrative makes Mary’s experience all the more riveting and poignant. I was swept up by the vivid flow of habitual action interrupted … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay, memoir, personal essay, women's voices

On Meeting the Lost Boys of Sudan, Personal Writing at the Intersection of History

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 8, 2014 by Betty ShaferJanuary 10, 2014

Writing It Real member Betty Shafer met five of the Lost Boys of the Sudan during a time that she was mourning personal losses and considering a major life change. Entwining their story of tragedy and survival during an historic upheaval with reflections on events in her own life, Betty arrives at clarity, strength, and … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, WIR2013, WIR2014, Writing Makes a Difference | Tagged personal essay

New Year’s Thoughts and Advice From My Correspondence With My iPad Mini

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on December 31, 2013 by Sheila BenderFebruary 18, 2014

December 31, 2013 Dear Mini, Today marks our six-month anniversary of being together!  Six months! And you, my love, remain ever fresh and surprising, ever so original! We haven’t parted for even a day since that July afternoon when I gave in to the gleam in your eye and brought you home. I want to … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged persona essay, personal essay, writing exercises

Foreword to Times They Were A-Changing

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 30, 2013 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2013

It was an honor to be asked to write the foreword to the newly released anthology Times They Were A-Changing, edited by Linda Joy Myers, Amber Lea Starfire, and Kate Farrell, whose selection of forty-eight powerful stories and poems by women about life changing experiences in the ’60s and ’70s vividly re-creates those two decades … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013, Writing Makes a Difference | Tagged Informational Writing, personal essay, Times They Are A' Changing, Writing the 60's

Writing a Eulogy Starting with a Remembered Trait

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 23, 2013 by Sheila BenderOctober 23, 2013

When asked to write a eulogy for a family member you cared for, you may find that your memories and those of others who knew the person you are writing about might span a lifetime but with gaps. Thinking of a physical trait you strongly associate with the person who has died and opening the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, WIR2013

Using Anaphora — A Model for a Speech

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 16, 2013 by Emily M. BenderOctober 16, 2013

When my daughter Emily Bender was writing a Valedictorian speech to be delivered at her UC Berkeley graduation, she was nervous about having something worth saying. With all of the demands of her life as a graduating senior, she had mulled the speech over but not found a way of tying things together. The she … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, Reading for Writing, WIR2013 | Tagged how to write a speech, personal essays, Valedictorian speech, Writing Craft Tools

On Writing the Eulogy

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 2, 2013 by David ReichOctober 2, 2013

As writers, we are frequently the ones asked to write eulogies for friends and family members. Even if we are not asked, we may feel moved to write eulogies to honor those we loved and then to share our writing with a literary audience. Reading author David Reich’s eulogy for his father and considering the … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, The Working Writer, WIR2013 | Tagged personal essay, reading for writing, writing advice, Writing Craft Tools

A Keynote Address Using Personal Experience

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 25, 2013 by Sheila BenderOctober 8, 2013

As the writers among our circles of family, friends, colleagues and associates, we are often approached to write addresses and eulogies, toasts and speeches. On September 19, 2013, I presented the keynote address at Providence Hospice of Seattle’s annual Pediatric Luncheon. It is a fundraiser for the organization’s work with grieving and terminally ill children and … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2013, Writing Makes a Difference | Tagged memoir, personal essay, writing advice, writing inspiration, writing memoir

The Work of an Opening — To Achieve an Engaging, Smooth and Useful Beginning

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 28, 2013 by Julaina M. KleistAugust 28, 2013

Julaina Kleist-Corwin’s story is our third place winner in the spring/summer 2013 Writing It Real writing contest. Guest judge Terry Persun wrote to us that he chose the story because he liked the pacing and grew “to know the characters, all the while not knowing which to trust or which he liked better.” He also … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Revisions - Sample Successes, WIR2013 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay, Revision in prose writing, writing advice, Writing Fiction, Writing Scenes

2nd Place Winner in Our Spring/Summer 2013 Contest

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 21, 2013 by Cyndi LloydAugust 21, 2013

Our guest judge Terry Persun chose Cyndi Lloyd’s story “Recess” as the second place winner in Writing It Real’s Spring/Summer 2013 Writing Contest. He commented: I like the way this writer was able to draw out several different personalities in such a small space. I felt as though I knew these men and the older … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay

First Place Winning Essay 2013 Writing It Real Spring/Summer Contest

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 14, 2013 by Hildegard HingleAugust 14, 2013

This week we are proud to publish the first of three winning essays in our recent contest. In choosing Hildegard Hingle’s essay as the first place winner in Writing It Real’s 2013 spring and summer writing contest, guest judge Terry Persun sent these words: This so reminded me of Nicholas Sparks. At first, I’m unsure … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay, memoir, writing life, writing memoir

Judith Kitchen on Reading as a Writer Reads Part 2

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 17, 2013 by Judith KitchenJuly 17, 2013

Applying her method of reading as a writer reads to Pam Houston’s Contents May Have Shifted, Judith Kitchen asks, “So is this memoir, masked as novel? Or novel, masked as memoir? That’s one of the first questions that a reader of this book asks. “What does it matter?” you might venture.   Here is our guest author’s explanation. Reading … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, The Working Writer, WIR2013 | Tagged memoir, reading for writing, Writing Fiction, writing memoir

Judith Kitchen on Reading as a Writer Reads Part 1

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 10, 2013 by Judith KitchenJuly 17, 2013

For our community read this past March 2013, the librarians in Port Townsend, where I live, chose Pam Houston’s novel Contents May Have Shifted, a story, they felt to be about love and freedom in middle age, something dear to the hearts of many in this community. At the top of the month the library … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, The Working Writer, WIR2013 | Tagged on writing, reading for writing, women's voices, Writing Fiction, writing memoir

“March 9th, Day Zero” — Excerpt from Stumbling Through the Dark

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 15, 2013 by Thelma ZirkelbachMay 15, 2013

Thelma Zirkelbach describes her memoir as “a story of love and loss and unexpected courage.” In the following excerpt from Chapter 11 of Stumbling Through the Dark, Mazo Publishers, 2013 (posted here with permission of the author), Thelma’s husband Ralph is undergoing a red cell transplant. How does one commemorate what is supposed to be … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged memoir, personal essay, Trusting Images

Parking Garage – A Personal Essay on Widowhood

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 8, 2013 by Thelma ZirkelbachMay 8, 2013

Along with editors Barbara B. Rollins, Becky Haigler, and Robyn Conley, Thelma Zirkelbach edited the anthology On Our Own: Widowhood for Smarties. We posted an interview with Thelma last week about the process of finding contributors and publishing the anthology. This week, we are pleased to post an essay by Thelma from the 2012 book. … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013, Writers Building a Community of Readers | Tagged personal essay, personal essays

Our Third Place Winning Essay – Salvation by Pam Robinson

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 1, 2013 by Pam RobinsonMarch 1, 2013

Pam Robinson is our third place winner in the Writing It Real winter, 2012 writing contest. Our guest judge, Shanti Bannwart, sent these words along about Pamela’s essay: The piece begins with a quote that provides almost a summary of the story that follows. And the almost is the trigger here, whetting the appetite of … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay, memoir, personal essay

Our Second Place Contest Winner: Navy Blue by Kate Foley Cusumano

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 20, 2013 by Kate Foley CusumanoMarch 1, 2013

We are proud to post the second place winner in our Winter, 2012 Writing It Real contest. Kate Foley Cusumano is a former Navy officer and elementary school teacher. A Midwesterner at heart, she’s been influenced by years in Alaska, Hawaii, Japan and Italy, among other locales. Kate is currently an adjunct professor for the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013

I Grew Up in That Place – First Place Winning Essay, Winter 2012 Contest

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 13, 2013 by Kate AllenFebruary 13, 2013

The contest results are in and we are proud to publish the first-place winning essay in our winter, 2012 contest. Guest judge Shanti Bannwart sent these words about Kate Allen’s “I Grew Up in That Place”:  The essay is a touching example of the mythological Hero’s Journey – or better the Heroine’s Journey: the challenge of encountering … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged contest winner, contest winning essay, memoir, personal essay, personal essays

Excerpt from Meg Files Novel The Third Law of Motion

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 30, 2013 by Meg FilesJanuary 30, 2013

This excerpt is from Chapter 15 of The Third Law of Motion by Meg Files, published by Anaphora Literary Press, 2011, reprinted here by permission of the author. Lonnie had already started work as an inventory clerk in a new discount store just outside town, and we’d used the Christmas money from Dad for rent and … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged fantasy fiction, women's voices, Writing Craft Tools, Writing Fiction, Writing Scenes

Talking Recklessly

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 16, 2013 by KimStaffordJanuary 16, 2013

 “Talking Recklessly” is excerpted by permission of the author, Kim Stafford, from his memoir 100 Tricks Any Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared published 2012 by Trinity University Press, San Antonio, TX. When we were young, our father had a habit of abruptly increasing the voltage by announcing, “Let’s talk recklessly!” This meant any … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2013 | Tagged Kim Stafford, memoir, personal essay

Our Dreams Choose Us

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 2, 2013 by Sheila BenderMarch 6, 2013

After I began studying with poets at the University of Washington in the early 80’s, I had a closet in my bedroom under my house’s eaves converted into a writing nook with a skylight. Sitting there at night, I could see the stars and sometimes the moon. During the day, sunshine and Seattle’s famous clouds, … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2013 | Tagged on writing, writing advice, writing inspiration

A Holiday Letter

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 20, 2012 by Sheila BenderDecember 17, 2012

After a request from a Writing It Real member to write more on the topic of composing holiday letters, I decided first to write my holiday letter and see what lessons came. I started with the scene of a recent night’s wakefulness and let that scene lead me to associations concerning some of the events … Continue reading →

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Posted in Instructional Exercises, Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2012 | Tagged memoir, personal essay, trust your images

In Praise of Inadequate Gifts

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 7, 2012 by Tarn WilsonJune 11, 2014

Former Writing It Real intern, Tarn Wilson, shares an exquisite, humble essay about the times we confront loss in the lives of those we don’t know well and the times others address our own losses. This essay first appeared in Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Vol. 40, Nos. 3 and 4 (Summer/Autumn 2012): 13-16. Copyright 2012 The President … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged personal essay

Expect It In The Casino by Diane C. Drury, Our Third Place Winner

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 17, 2012 by Diane DruryDecember 18, 2012

The recent Writing It Real contest provided the opportunity for people to write about the world around them, send in a draft, receive my responses for help in revising, and then re-enter a revision for our final judge, Betsy Howell. In selecting Diane Drury’s poem “Expect It in the Casino,” Betsy wrote: Not all memoir … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Revisions - Sample Successes, WIR2012 | Tagged contest winner, Writing Poetry

Taking Notes: Assisted Living — Evolution of Helen Goehring’s Second Place Winning Essay

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 10, 2012 by Helen GoehringDecember 18, 2012

Our judge Betsy Howell wrote about her selection of Helen Goehring’s essay: “We learn from people when we stop and really see them, when we know something of their lives, past and present, and all that has made them who they are. The author in this essay sees many reasons for hopefulness, even as the hard … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged contest winning essay, personal essay, writing advice

Boating to Breakfast: Evolution of Mary Langer Thompson’s First-Place Winning Poem

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 26, 2012 by Mary ThompsonDecember 18, 2012

In our spring/summer Writing It Real contest, writers and poets sent in writing inspired by the world around them. That’s a broad topic as we might be looking at the world close up and intimately or from afar. In selecting winners in our spring/summer Writing It Real contest, final judge Betsy Howell wrote of Mary … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Revisions - Sample Successes, WIR2012 | Tagged contest winner, Trusting Images, Writing Poetry

Trim Twist Demonstrator

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 20, 2012 by Sheila BenderSeptember 20, 2012

Have you ever come across a call for submissions for a themed anthology or special issue of a magazine and thought, “Oh, I have something I could write that would fit”? Combing the submissions-wanted section in Poets & Writer’s magazine and signing up with Creative Writing Opportunities to receive daily emails about literary magazines and … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2012

Excerpt from Women of Strength by Betty Jane Cooper Johnson as told to Suzan Huney

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 29, 2012 by Suzan HuneyAugust 30, 2012

Suzan Huney used what she’d learned about taking and publishing oral history in her recent book, Women of Strength, by Betty Jane Cooper Johnson as told to Suzan Huney. The following excerpt from their work together illustrates the way oral histories evoke time and place as well as the personality of the interviewee, while informing … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012

Lust for Life

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on June 6, 2012 by Shanti BannwartOctober 19, 2022

The following is excerpted from Chapter 7 of by permission of the author. On May 8, 1945, a radio announce­ment declared the end of World War II and the women of the neighborhood got very busy. They made huge pots and bowls full of green peppermint tea and red berry juice and they prepared plates … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged memoir, persona essay

Bagging Africa’s Big Five

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 23, 2012 by Dorothy RossMay 30, 2012

Dorothy Ross’s winning personal essay takes her readers to Africa and a photo safari involving more action than the writer had bargained for. The details the author chooses put us right into the situation with directness and good humor, attributes of good writing. Bagging Africa’s Big Five by Dorothy Ross Thirty-six hours after leaving San … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged contest winning essay, personal essay

Monday Morning at the Fracture Clinic

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 15, 2012 by Karin GoldbergMay 17, 2012

I admire Karin Goldberg’s recent Writing It Real contest winning description of an accident she suffered and her description of waiting for help. Though in shock, she did what she could to remain in control. In the days after the accident, she comes to an insight of value to all of us writers. Monday Morning … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged contest winning essay, personal essay

American Union

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 9, 2012 by Cecile LusbyMay 8, 2012

I admire Cecile Lusby’s first-place winning essay in our recent Writing It Real contest for its use of dialog to involve the reader in the author’s life-changing childhood experience and for the way the essay spans time, letting us know the impacts of our interactions with others affect us for a lifetime, and working out … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged contest winning essay, personal essay

Go Ahead: Write About Your Parents, Again

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 2, 2012 by Tarn WilsonJune 11, 2014

Tarn Wilson writes, “Then, in my newest piece of writing, my mother returned like a zombie, dominating in all her horror and glory. She was stubborn and unyielding and I had no powers against her. After I’d wallowed around in the shame of my retrogression, I decided to re-examine my assumptions.” It is with delight that … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged memoir, personal essay, writing advice

Carrying the Raindrops – Journey to Writing Poetry

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 28, 2012 by Sheila BenderMay 8, 2012

Just after she’d learned to walk, my 15-month-old daughter and I spent a cloudy afternoon at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo.  Her favorite animals were the birds that wandered the grounds because she saw she could send them into flight by toddling towards them.  A day later, we saw ourselves in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  A reporter … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, Sheila Bender On Writing, WIR2012

Casting On

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 15, 2012 by Christi Killien GloverFebruary 15, 2012

Christi Killien and her husband, who she refers to as the Bearded One, have been developing what they call a farmlet on their property in Washington State, learning about sustainable living. A fiction writer who suspended story projects for many years, Christi found her interest in writing rekindled from the couple’s ongoing projects on the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012

The Yoga of Writing

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 8, 2012 by Brenda MillerFebruary 9, 2012

Personal essayist Brenda Miller is keeping a blog entitled Spa of the Mind, a phrase she borrowed from a chapter in William Powers’ book Hamlet’s Blackberry. By keeping this blog, Brenda is dedicating herself  to exploring “the ways we find respite for our weary minds in a connected world.” She wonders how “we find and cultivate inner space … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012

Of Eucalyptus And Elm Trees And Fathers, Too

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 11, 2012 by Hildegard HingleJanuary 11, 2012

The guest judge for Writing It Real’s summer/fall 2011 writing contest was Susan Bono, who chose “Eucalyptus And Elm Trees And Fathers, Too” as our third place winner. Susan wrote about the work that it “flowed so naturally. The writer uses the eucalyptus tree that used to be part of her view to trigger a … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged contest winner, personal essay

Making Peace

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 4, 2012 by Drew WilsonJanuary 11, 2012

Susan Bono, our guest judge for the Summer/Fall Writing It Real contest, chose the following essay as our second place winner. She writes of the essay: “I felt like the writer touched all the bases as she ran home. I was very satisfied with its shape and scope. This writer takes the simple act of … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2012 | Tagged contest winner, personal essay

I Know How the Wild Goose Feels

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on December 21, 2011 by Sher LaughlinJanuary 4, 2012

Our Summer/Fall WIR guest contest judge Susan Bono awarded first place to Sher Laughlin’s essay. Susan enjoyed the essay’s “many layers of emotion and craft.” She wrote that the essay “employed great use of scene, dialog, imagery/symbolism and moved effortlessly between the tension of the unfolding incident and the narrator’s ever-expanding drama, realizations about beginnings … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011 | Tagged contest winner, personal essay

The Adventures of Super Joni! (And Her Amazing Dog E-Pie-Pie)

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on December 1, 2011 by Joni ColeDecember 5, 2011

When Writing It Real contributor Joni Cole sent me a review copy of her new collection of essays Another Bad-Dog Book: Tales of Life, Love, and Neurotic Human Behavior, I was excited to get started reading. The book proved both funny, sometimes sidesplitting so, and poignant, especially when she writes about her elderly father. This week … Continue reading →

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Posted in From Our Contributors, Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Excerpts from Connie Leas’ Nonfiction Books

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 17, 2011 by Connie LeasDecember 14, 2011

This week, Connie Leas offers us excerpts from her two recent nonfiction books. In last week’s article, you read about how the author decided to write on topics that interested her; now you get to read her approach to offering others the information she finds and digests. Excerpt 1 – from The Art of Thank … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

16 Reflections on Writing a Buddhist (or Any) Poem

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 6, 2011 by Michael SowderDecember 5, 2011

I In the high reaches of the Bear River Mountains of Northern Utah the leaves of the big tooth maples are turning red, and the sky arches a rich blue over the campus of Utah State University. I think of my own college student days, the world opening before me with continents of thought and … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Lucy’s Choice

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 28, 2011 by Hildegard HingleNovember 28, 2011

Here is our third place winner in the recent WIR essay and poetry contest. We posted our first place winner last week and we’ll be posting the second place winner — a poem — next week. When you read Hildegard’s essay about an elderly friend, think about the ways in which the essay grounds us … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Mother’s Curse

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 21, 2011 by Kate M. BracyNovember 28, 2011

[DAP userId=”10″]This is a Special Edition for Kate Bracy’s readers. We hope you enjoy it. Please consider trying Writing It Real for two weeks for only $.99.[/DAP] I admire the way Kate M. Bracy threads her essay with the words of the “mother’s curse,” using them four times  (at the beginning, a couple of times … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Your Best Friend, Not Mine

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 14, 2011 by Kurt VanderSluisNovember 28, 2011

Personal essays can be effective arguments that lobby to persuade others to rethink behavior or at least understand a different point of view. As you read this week’s account of Kurt VanderSluis’ incident with a dog, note the way his narration of the incident as well as his narration of his inner response to it … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Smoking

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 7, 2011 by Jack HeffronDecember 5, 2011

Two years ago, Jack Heffron read this personal essay at our Writing It Real conference in Port Townsend. An exercise Jack offered this past conference involved writing a confession about something you haven’t confessed before. His assignment made me remember the entertaining and true-to-human nature essay he’d read to us the year before. Now Jack has given Writing … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Far As I Can Remember

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 17, 2011 by Nancy RekowDecember 5, 2011

Last week we posted Nancy Rekow’s foreword to the oral history she wrote from interviews with Minnie Rose Lovgreen, her neighbor of many years. This week we post an excerpt so you can experience Minnie’s voice and the skill with which Nancy selected transcriptions from the many interviews. There is more information about the book … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Things Fall Apart

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 10, 2011 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Last month, I met journalist Lawrence W. Cheek, who is on the faculty of the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts low-residency MFA program on Whidbey Island. He is at work on a boat he has named Nil Desperandum (never despair) as well as a new book about boatbuilding as character building. He has generously shared … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Earning Our Turns: Celebrating Romance Nordic Style

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 20, 2011 by Alessandra BianchiOctober 30, 2011

This week, we are very pleased to post the first place winning essay in Writing It Real’s Fall, 2010 contest. Our guest judge this time around was Ellie Mathews, who wrote about her choice this way, “In her essay, ‘Earning Our Turns,’ Alessandra Bianchi takes the reader with her on a ski trip via minute … Continue reading →

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Posted in Literary Gallery, WIR2011

Perspective

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 23, 2010 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

[The following is a chapter from Jan Vallone’s memoir Pieces of Someday. The speaker is a lawyer and 44 -year-old mother of two who longs to become a writer and a teacher of writing. To make the career change, she examines her past, including the demands of her father that she not become a teacher … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2010

My Mother the Queen

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 19, 2010 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

This week we are proud to post “My Mother, the Queen,” our first place-winning essay in Writing It Real’s 2010 Spring Contest. I think you’ll find the author’s use of an extended metaphor to describe her mother both poignant and useful. The metaphor facilitates the author’s humor, expressions of love, and evocation of patience while … Continue reading →

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“Release,” A Poem by Kristin Henry

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 12, 2010 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

After I read Kristin Henry’s poem “Release,” I was drawn to reread it many times over the days I was reading contest entries. I admired its embedded rhymes (“back away./ Her airy body; delirium-like, but true. I’ve/heard them, too) and its rhythms, the way its italicized dialog tells a rich, full story, and the way … Continue reading →

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A Need to Write

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 29, 2010 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Recently, I met Beckie A. Miller online and learned that her writing career began with the need to write about loss. This week in our series on writing grief, I am sharing her first published essay, a recent humorous essay she’s written, and her commentary on the development of her writing life. Beckie describes the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2010

Tethered

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 22, 2010 by Cora Goss-GrubbsOctober 25, 2011

Writing one’s way through grief is a process that helps us integrate our loss into our interior life. Writing about loss, we face life without the physical presence of someone we loved dearly. Having written a memoir about the loss of my son and teaching an online class called “Writing Grief” for those who want … Continue reading →

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To Delight in the Feel and Taste of Words in My Mouth

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 8, 2010 by William MawhinneyDecember 6, 2011

This week during National Poetry Month, William Mawhinney offers us an account of the way sound is at the root of his poetry practice. His books, Songs in My Begging Bowl, which appeared in 2002, and Cairns Along the Road, which appeared in 2009, are both available through him for $10 each. To order, email … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2010

Retracing Her Great-Great-Grandfather’s Footsteps

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 15, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

The following is an excerpt from Acoustic Shadows: Men at War and a Daughter Who Remembers Them by Betsy Howell. At 31, after the death of both her parents, Betsy sought solace in a family heirloom–the diary of her great-great-grandfather James Darsie Heath’s journals documenting his service in the Union army during the Civil War. … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

First

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 1, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Seven years ago this October, Kurt and I launched Writing It Real. It would have been Seth Bender’s 27th birthday, had he not died in December, 2000 in a snowboarding accident. The magazine’s first article was “A Special Birthday,” explaining our purpose in offering the magazine so people would have the “right food and the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

Los Tulares: The Place of the Rushes

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 24, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Many of us have a connection to place and want to use research about that location’s founding, settlement, history, flora and fauna in our writing. Eileen Apperson’s essay about Los Tulares provides a good example of how love of place and fact finding can make an informative essay that preserves and shares valuable knowledge. Los … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

A Quiet Ache

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on September 10, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

This essay, which won an American Jewish Press Award, originally appeared in the April 2004 Hadassah Magazine, April 2004. It is included in a collection of essays by Sandra Hurtes, On My Way To Someplace Else, that will be out next month from Poetica Publishing Company. Pre-orders may be made at OnMyWayEssays@yahoo.com. The price is … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

Our Baby, Not Yours

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on August 20, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Barbara Graham’s essay about the birth of her granddaughter, Isabelle Eva, and the changes it made in her and her family are not only the subject of this wonderful essay but also the inspiration for a whole anthology of writings by women writers on grandmothering, Eye of My Heart published this year by HarperCollins. Last … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

Writing in Style

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on July 23, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Last week we posted an interview with memoirist Sue William Silverman. This week’s article is an excerpt from her new book, Fearless Confessions: A Writers Guide to Memoir, and  is reprinted here with the permission of the author and University of Georgia Press. Writing In Style I love red shoes. Always have, always will. I … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

Excerpt from Wounding’s Grace: Confessions of an Extraordinary Heart

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on June 4, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

I am pleased to present the second place winner in our spring 2009 Writing It Real No-Contest Contest. Mary Oak has woven her childhood longings and adult experience into a rich tapestry in the service of informing many through her life review. As she writes in her bio information, after surviving a cardiac arrest in … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

The Hershey Bar Incident

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 28, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Kathy Krause’s personal essay “The Hershey Bar Incident” entertains as well as reminds readers of something very important–how many times as adults we make promises to children and then don’t come through, thus eroding the admiration the children have for us and leaving more hurt behind than we willingly acknowledge. Kathy’s well-drawn descriptions of what … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

What the Moment Can Hold

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 21, 2009 by Sheila BenderJanuary 7, 2015

The first time I hold my daughter’s daughter I feel so sad. I don’t remember feeling this when her sons were born. It is a strange feeling, the wrong emotion for this happy time, but I can’t help it. I’m remembering when the baby in my arms was my daughter, when it was all still … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

An Introduction that Puts Argument to Work

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 30, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

In this slightly abbreviated excerpt from another of author Elaine Partnow’s introductions, we see an argument at work that informs as it asks us to consider the absence of women from lists of notable playwrights.  Partnow has put her book together, she says, to “allow women playwrights throughout history to resurface, as well as to … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

Words of Introduction Outline a Book

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on April 23, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Elaine Partnow wrote this introduction for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Your True Age, which she co-authored with her sister Judith Hyman, Ph.D. You will see the work a book’s introduction can do for managing readers’ expectations of how a book is ordered and how they will participate in learning. Youth is as much a … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

“The Blue Hornet” by Nicki Jack

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 12, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

It is with pleasure that we post our third place winner in Writing It Real’s 2008 No-Contest Contest. Nicki narrates a Christmas morning in a way that goes beyond Christmas memories. She does a fine job of helping us see life through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl with two brothers. Her use of setting … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

“White Bird Morning” by Mai Lon Gittelsohn, 2nd Place Winner Winter 2008

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 6, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

I enjoy “White Bird Morning” by Mai Lon Gittelsohn for many reasons. The poem situates me in the familiarity of an early Sunday morning and then takes a turn into territory that is new to me. It isn’t long before the rich detail informs me that the poem is about the circumstances of a particular … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

“The Legend of the White Zucchini,” An Essay by Mardi Link

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 26, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Mardi Link’s essay is a wonderful example of how narrating a story about a time you found something important to you allows you to weave themes of sadness and joy together into a full experience for the reader. The details in this essay, from the ones about the speaker’s sadness and lethargy following a divorce … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

An Essay and a Poem

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on January 8, 2009 by Sheila BenderOctober 17, 2011

Love And Hate On Night Watch By Katrina Hays Originally published in Sea Stories Journal, Winter 2008 Offshore sailors have ridiculous and sublime ways to spend their time. One of these exercises in necessity and boredom is the night watch. I both adore and despise night watch. There is no middle ground here. Being awake … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2009

Fallow Time

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 27, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

[From What I Thought I Knew, Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, Inc., 2008] Faint light is leaking through the bedroom mini-blinds, but there’s no good reason to get out of bed. It’s late winter in Southern Indiana. The sodden ground is blotched with dirty patches of snow, and wilted lawns droop, defeated under ashen clouds that have hung … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

Buttons

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on November 6, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

In July, Nina Soifer sent three poems into the Writing It Real No-Contest Contest. I was very taken with “Buttons,” a poem that evokes specific childhood time the young poet spent with her grandmother: Buttons Sometimes when I look at my hands, the way the blue veins bulge and the knuckles protrude a little, I … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

An Escalating Din

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on October 30, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

[This week we present the second place winner in our first No-Contest Contest. The work Nicole Janeen Jones sent in moved me very much. Most of the essay was fluid and kept me engaged in the weightiness of Nicole’s subject and the urgency of her occasion. There were some places in the essay, however, that … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

The Perfect Rock

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on June 5, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

“After Marisa’s first seizure, when the two of us were in the hospital, the nurse told me I was doing a great job, and that I was a wonderful mother.” I read the opening of Betsy MacWhinney’s essay and immediately worried about her daughter. However, as I read further through the essay, my feelings of … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

Grooming

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 29, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

Mary Zelinka opens her essay “Grooming” with a statement that lets us know up front that she is going to tell us an emotional story: “I wanted to hate Papa Burke, but by then I loved him too much.” I do not yet know who Papa Burke is, or what his relationship is to the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

Becoming a Woman of Color

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 22, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

“Becoming a Woman of Color” by Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor offers a satisfying and moving read. A lyric essay in structure, it is built in sections that each begin with a command: Imagine, Remember, Picture. The symmetry between beginning and ending the essay with the word imagine and the repeated commands of remember and picture sandwiched between … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

The Ungarnished Truth

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on May 8, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

This week we are posting an excerpt from Ellie Mathews’ memoir The Ungarnished Truth. The excerpt is a kind of a how-to essay. Ellie details the winning recipe she entered into the 1998 Pillsbury Bake Off Contest, telling us how she came up with it and a little about her approach to cooking daily meals. … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

Dotting the Dragon’s Eye

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 13, 2008 by Jack HeffronDecember 5, 2011

This week, Jack Heffron, writer, editor and faculty member for Writing It Real In Port Townsend’s annual late June writer’s conference, shares “Dot the Dragon’s Eye,” Chapter Seventeen in his instructional book The Writer’s Idea Workshop: How to make your good ideas great, Writer’s Digest Books, 2003. Whether you are writing fiction, creative nonfiction or … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

The Gestures I Remember Him By

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on March 6, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

Winter is one of the birthday seasons in my family. Among those birthdays, my late father’s comes February 20 and then mine, March 6th. Growing up, I marveled about how both he and I were Pisces, when we seemed so different in our temperaments. Like many men of his era, Bert J. Lillian equated vulnerability … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

Mother’s Day

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on February 21, 2008 by Sheila BenderOctober 31, 2011

Thelma Zirkelbach, who won an honorable mention in a previous Writing It Real personal essay contest, has a talent for evoking those she is close to. In this winning essay, she writes about her mother as she is today and as she was in the past, calling up a lasting evocation. More of my thoughts … Continue reading →

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Posted in Archives, Literary Gallery, WIR2008

An Algebra Problem

Sheila Bender's Writing It Real Posted on