Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Beautiful Affliction: a Memoir
I never dreamed of writing a memoir. I just always had words in me. When I was seven years old I started to write poems, and the words somehow seemed stronger scribbled in my small notebook. In middle school my teacher constantly reminded me: “Speak up, Lene! We can’t hear what you’re saying when you […]
Writing About Lipedema
My body may limit me at times, but my mind travels at light speed. As I got pregnant with my first child, some annoying little pains and complaints I already had, became much worse. Two years later it got a name: lipedema. Lipedema – A poorly understood yet common condition that makes you swell with […]
Short Story: The Long Way Home
‘Did I defrost the chicken?’ Janice asked Mungo, the small bobbled bear stuck to her dashboard, as she pulled into the stream of going-home traffic. Tom used to do the remembering for both of them. That was before. Before the stroke which changed everything, destroyed his memory, robbed him of control over his left side. […]
Painful to remember, too important to forget
It would be difficult to overestimate the impact of Northern Ireland’s violent past. Victims are haunted by it. Politicians stalked by it. Peace initiatives stymied by it. Some observers argue that we should draw a line under it and move on. Given its sensitivity, I agonised over the ‘right’ thing to do when I unexpectedly […]
5 Stories about Publishing that are No Longer True (and maybe never were)
Maybe all professions like to scare young hopefuls — to weed the flock, so to speak — and the publishing industry, notorious for its gloom and doom predictions, is no exception. As a graduate student in a Creative Writing department, I heard all sorts of stories from teachers and other students that made it seem […]
The Impact of Yoga on Writing
Wet Silence was a book I wrote before I lost my mother or did a yoga teacher training. Wet Silence was a book I wrote at a time when I would show up to yoga classes during times when I needed clarity with my writing, career, or life in general. But, my world shook and changed after my […]
The Adventure of Writing
When you see the word adventure, you probably think of action, travel, and the outdoors. You don’t naturally think of writing. However, I beg to differ. I define adventure as something new, challenging, and perhaps frightening. In almost all cases, it’s all consuming. Deciding to do it and then executing it despite the fear is […]
Writer in Prison
It was my first day in prison and I had a big to-do list: Put your belt kit and key pouch on. Empty your pockets and purse of money, ID, anything that might hold an address or personal details, because information can be used against you Bring nothing inside that can be used as a […]
Letter to My Pre-publication Self
It’s now 8 months since the book was first published, so I decided to invent time travel (patent pending) to give you a preview of what will happen and what you will learn during this crazy, baffling, exciting, scary time. You can thank me later. 1. Writing the book is not job done. It’s just […]
Short Story: The Keepers
Short story about friendship between lighthouse keepers by Melissa Bailey, whose novel Beyond the Sea came out earlier this year. Ten miles from shore, perched on the low black rock, the lighthouse was a hazy smudge of white in the gloaming. Isolated, indistinct, hovering somewhere between sea and sky, an as-yet unlit beacon of hope […]
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