Category: writer on writing
-

Hi friends! I woke up today to unseasonal rains and there’s an unmistakable nip in the air. Autumn might be sooner than usual, and winter, colder. Have you noticed the season changing where you are? Let me know in the comments! It is interesting how a small change triggers a big one. Perhaps you’re more…
-

If you are a writer, don’t read. That is the advice of leading writers, thinkers and eminent personalities, including Albert Einstein, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy and William Woodard. Sounds like literary sacrilege, doesn’t it? More so, given that, as writers, we want to read everything we can lay our hands on. But, turns out, there…
-

JULY 05, 2025 Last year, something happened to my writing process. Inspiration went cold. Sentences didn’t flow. And the right words became elusive beasts in an ever-thinning herd. Some people would term this “writer’s block”, two words that brought to mind an unyielding presence, an insurmountable obstacle with solid edges and sharp corners. I didn’t…
-

July 02, 2025 Hey friends! How about starting this month’s newsletter by sharing some submission calls I’m really excited about and believe you will be too. Hudson Review is open all month to a no-fee #poetrycontest 1st prize: $1000 + publication, 2nd & 3rd: $500 + publication. Submit up to 5 poems; manuscripts accepted electronically.…
-

CRAFT ESSAY BY MANDIRA PATTNAIK Earlier this week, I was looking at the themes that literary magazines are currently open for. Some of them are “Science” (inScribe), “Memories in Shape” (The Literary Times), “Fairytale, Myths, Legends” (Livina Press), “Letter to the Editor” (The New York Times Magazine) and “I Wish I’d Said That” (THEMA). One…
-

June 01, 2025 Hey friends! Welcome back! First up. Mysterious are the ways of the heart. My heart is full as both Glass/Fire and Where We Set Our Easel turned-in anniversaries–six months/4.25 Goodreads rating and two years/4.9 Goodreads rating respectively, but my collection of short stories is still looking for a publisher, even as the…
-

GUEST BLOGPOST BY HARSHITA NANDA, AUTHOR OF Love Awaits, A Tale of Unbroken Promises MAY 18 2025 Most people have no idea what being a writer truly entails. Thus, I decided to pen down a few words and dispel some of the myths about being a writer and their writing process. Have you seen movies where…
-

in spite of bending and breaking quite a few rules of literary fiction writing, “The Stackpole Legend” manages to be a hugely satisfying read “The Stackpole Legend” (Wendell Berry, The Threepenny Review) is not your conventional short story. Reading it can be revealing, especially to new and emerging writers. I say this because it busts so many myths early…

