Melanie Unruh 
We are excited to announce our August featured writer, the great Lisa D. Chávez! This month, keep an eye out for: —Week 1: We release this month’s edition of Digital Plume, which includes Lisa’s letter of encouragement and a selection of her poetry and creative nonfiction. Join our Patreon at the Prickly Pear $5 level to gain … Read more
We first experienced Melanie’s writing through Albuquerque’s creative writing series Bad Mouth. I remember Jenn saying to me, “Have you watched this week’s Bad Mouth writer video? She’s really good!” And she was right. I was mesmerized by Melanie’s work, which she read with such warmth and strength. I knew we had to see if … Read more
I met Felecia because we teach at the same community college. Our first real conversation was when I agreed to sub a fiction class for her. My department is large and I admit that I’m not overly social, but as soon I started talking with Felecia, my first thought was Why haven’t I been talking … Read more
As we’re all slouching towards the end of 2020, I decided I wanted to treat myself to something. I’ve been on the mailing list for the literary magazine Philadelphia Stories for years. It was one of the first journals to ever publish my work, so I was always curious to keep up with the goings … Read more
This week’s Bad Mouth’s Online in the Meantime reading series featured Plume’s own Melanie Unruh! If you follow Plume regularly you probably know this: Melanie Unruh is a New Mexico-based writer of YA novels, short stories, and creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in and is forthcoming from The Boiler, Cutthroat, Sixfold, Post Road, New Ohio Review, Two Hawks Quarterly, and Philadelphia Stories, among others. … Read more
Our featured writer for October is Atlanta-based poet Danielle Hanson. I met Danielle in the spring at the AWP Conference in San Antonio. It was such a strange, upside-down time at this event that was half-empty as we straddled the line between before and after COVID really took hold in the U.S., so it was … Read more
Photo credit: Meryl Schenker Donna Miscolta is Plume’s featured writer for September! I’ve never met Donna before, but I had the absolute pleasure to meet and talk with her on Zoom a few days ago when we chatted with her for our podcast. Stay tuned for that great talk at the beginning of September! We … Read more
It has been a strange and scary time to be alive for a while now, but particularly in the past four months. I try to think of the last time I hauled ass from work across town to pick up my son from school or the last café where I ordered a chai and wrote … Read more
I’m someone who needs to get lost in a task or project. I need time to mull, to drift, to dig in and forget about everything else in my life. I put on music, fix myself some tea, and get in the zone. This is particularly true when I write. Once I had kids, this … Read more
A few months ago when stay-at-home orders began all over the country, we started a Zoom support group for women and non-binary writers. It has been such an empowering experience and we have gotten to know some truly amazing people from all over the country in such a short span of time. One of those … Read more