Category: On Writing
Choose Adventure over Convention. Then Write about It
By Alex Poppe Hanging onto the Land Cruiser’s roof rack with my left hand, I let go with my right, twisting to take photos of the stampede of children chasing us. Riding the back bumper evoked the exhilarated invincibility of youth. This is why I came here, I thought. This is wh—the humanitarian aid truck […]
Suzanne Trauth Interviews Connie Tucker from The First to Die
Connie Tucker from The First to Die Connie Tucker, a free-spirited beach bartender, has been estranged from her family in New Jersey ever since her actress mother, Simone, disappeared one night during a violent storm at the theatre where she was rehearsing. Uncontrollable and in a rage at the loss of her parent, fifteen-year-old Connie […]
Authors Interviewing Characters: Kristin Bair
Kristin Bair CLEMENTINE CRANE PREFERS NOT TO “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” hits perimenopause in this razor-sharp, wickedly funny novel about one woman’s awakening in a patriarchal world. For years, Clementine Crane has been the invisible force holding her Byrock, Massachusetts, home together—juggling three demanding kids, a husband who’s more hindrance than help, a soul-crushing boss […]
Identity Theft, Second Edition: Rediscovering Ourselves After Stroke: Excerpt
Identity Theft, Second Edition is an award-winning book that follows Stanford professor Debra Meyerson’s journey to recover from a severe stroke that initially left her physically incapacitated and unable to speak. In addition to providing realistic expectations for the hard work needed to regain everyday capabilities, Meyerson and Zuckerman focus on the less frequently documented emotional journey […]
Small Press Pages October 2025
Small Press Pages October 2025 October is a favorite month for our family. The kids and I are firmly grounded in the school groove, a crisp breeze sneaks in through the slightly open window, and the smell of burning leaves lingers in the air. And I can’t forget Halloween! Our neighborhood has always loved decorating […]
“Scattered Light”: How Fiction Can Help Us Heal Our Own Past Trauma
By Martha Engber All of us experience trauma of one kind or another. A terrible accident. A scary upbringing. A life-threatening illness. How we process that trauma varies widely. But I hazard to guess that most of us never address our demons at all, primarily because our “bring yourself up by your bootstraps” culture encourages […]
The Origin Story: As Is—A Memoir on Healing the Past Through Yoga
By Rachel Krentzman PT, C-IAYT, MBA When I began writing my memoir, As Is: A Memoir on Healing the Past Through Yoga, it felt as though the story was burning inside me, demanding to be told. And yet, I didn’t quite have the courage to share something so raw and vulnerable. It was safer, at […]
Interview With A Death Goddess
Of Prophecies and Pomegranates In Kraven’s spicy, Greek mythology retelling, Persephone, Goddess of Spring, struggles to meet the impossible demands of her overbearing, manipulative mother, Demeter. Sequestered to the Upper Realm, far from the politics and intrigues of Olympus, Persephone begins to crack under the pressure, sure that she will never be enough. But the […]
Writing Advice from My Teachers
My new book, Guardians & Saints, is a collection of stories about care as a process of give-and-take that’s shot through with ambivalence. My characters are students and teachers, doctors and patients, parents and children. They are preoccupied with what it means to care for others, and be cared for, through unavoidable separations—growing up, leaving […]
On Writing Always Hungry
Always Hungry was the book that I had to write. No longer could I be silent about my own lived experience in a larger body because (at the risk of making a bad dad joke) I realised that this story was bigger than me. Mine is a story of reclaiming my health, of discrimination, of […]
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