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Category: Reading and Writing

Something from Nothing: How to Use What Bothers You to Fuel Creativity and Inspire Positive Change

Something from Nothing: How to Use What Bothers You to Fuel Creativity and Inspire Positive Change

by: Katy Farber I don’t have to tell you that we live in a deeply divided and troubling world. It is a constant barrage of mostly unsettling, disturbing, and upsetting news. But it is also the most connected world we have ever lived in, and every single person alive right now has a chance to tell their stories. Like most people, I have a long list of issues that concern me greatly. In my writing workshops, I like to help…

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Shared History

Shared History

by Nikki Stern At 7:30 a.m. on a summer morning, the northern Wisconsin air did not yet hint at the promise of another typically beautiful day. Our twelve-year-old selves, denied the future pleasures of hot coffee, had stoked ourselves with pancakes and bacon. Dressed in the camp uniform of blue shorts and white blouses, some of us with navy cardigans to ward off the lingering chill, we made our way to the platform, picked up our .22 caliber rifles and…

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5 Real-Life Sisters Who Inspired Historical Fiction Novels

5 Real-Life Sisters Who Inspired Historical Fiction Novels

by Elise Hooper The renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead reportedly said, “Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.” The novel Little Women portrays the lives of four of the most well-known sisters in American literature, and I read it with fascination in my girlhood. Were the real Alcott sisters just like Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—the dutiful daughter, the tomboy, the angel, and the spoiled baby? I…

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Laughs From the Past: 5 Fun Historical Novels To Read Now

Laughs From the Past: 5 Fun Historical Novels To Read Now

by Greer Macallister Historical novels make for great reading, but to be honest? They can also be a bit of a downer. Some of the most popular novels set in the past are also some of the most depressing. It doesn’t mean they’re not worth reading – they are! – but when you’re finally kicking back in your beach chair, sipping something out of a coconut, you might not be in the mood for stories about wartime death and destruction,…

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Girlhood Illuminated: A Review of Olivia Gatwood’s “New American Best Friend”

Girlhood Illuminated: A Review of Olivia Gatwood’s “New American Best Friend”

by Anna Szilagyi New American Best Friend, Olivia Gatwood’s debut poetry collection, lives in adolescence. It lives in the bathroom with your childhood best friend guiding a razor over your leg, in your middle school health class, at a yoga session with Long Island women arguing in their thick New York accents. Published by Button Poetry on March 28th, 2017, New American Best Friend holds poems readers may recognize from Button Poetry’s YouTube channel and from literary magazines, but they have…

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