Guest post by Nathalie Bléser, part one in a series of 5 I recently put out a call for submissions to our website, and Nathalie Bléser quickly volunteered. I used to host regular drop-in writing session called Monday Writers and Nathalie attended on occasion, a delightful addition to our group. ~Jennifer Simpson “From the Moon … Read more
I met Sarah when I was in grad school and she was an undergrad at The University of New Mexico. My department had just started a creative writing mentorship program and I was assigned to mentor Sarah. I still have a vivid memory of this tall, bubbly, beautiful young woman coming up to me at … Read more
If you’re a mom, then you know it looms large in your identity. You are the finder of socks! The cutter of crusts! The only one the baby wants to hold him most days. She who carpools everyone to baseball practice and the movies with their friends. I like to think of my motherly identity … Read more
Our featured writer for April is Cynthia Patton, an accomplished essayist and poet. Cynthia tackles very personal topics in her writing, and we are so honored that she wanted to share this beautiful work with our Plume community. We hope you enjoy our interview with her! Plume: When did you know you were a writer? … Read more
Hello, friends (a.k.a. Plumesters)! We hope that your transition from winter into spring is going well. Over here at Plume we’re busy with our day-to-day operations and with coming up with new ideas for how to foster a supportive writing community. Sometimes, though, it can be easy to forget to slow down a little and … Read more
So, you’ve written a book… If this is the case, first of all–congratulations! Writing a full-length manuscript in any genre is a daunting, all-consuming, audacious task. Be sure to treat yourself to a well-deserved reward.The act of sitting down and doing the thing–writing!–is in some ways the hardest part of being a writer. But then…what … Read more
This year Melanie and I had hoped to attend the largest conference for creative writers–the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) in Portland at the end of March. We wanted to promote Plume and we also wanted to hang with fellow writers, many of them colleagues from grad school who’ve gone on to other … Read more
Dear Memoir, I met you for the first time in a writing workshop facilitated by Jill Badonsky. You were scribbles and snippets that filled my notebooks. Some of those bits were silly and some were too personal to share, but those bits were life rafts that kept me afloat when I was sinking: my sister … Read more
The Life of a Writer Being a writer, at any stage of her career, is no easy task. You sit down and do the thing–write–and create something out of nothing. You put yourself out there and share your messy, early drafts with trusted friends and critique partners. You revise, revise, revise. You query, query, query. … Read more
My best friend Karin told me that when she sleeps it’s like going to the movies. She dreams complete stories. And she doesn’t always have the lead role! That surprised me because I’m always the star of my own dreams. If I remember them. Of course she’s a fiction writer and I write nonfiction—I’m working … Read more