Twenty years ago, when I first came to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont, we let our cell phones die. There was no signal. We were moving off-radar. I remember the feeling of immersion almost physically. There was nowhere…
Edith René, a young writer from Ottawa, was the winner of the 2026 First Page student writing challenge in the Grades 10 to 12 category for their story Lost For Words. René's inventive story explored how book bans and censorship can impact…
The Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award continues to grow in visibility and prestige. Hartford’s Mark Twain House & Museum, which bestows the annual prize on authors that “define our current America,” has ramped up the awards ceremony this year…
Walker Percy: “Writing for a living is, for some reason or other, the only occupation to which people still ascribe a species of demonism.” On the other hand, how can you generalize about a craft whose practitioners are as different…
Not Mark Twain, not Herman Melville, not F. Scott Fitzgerald. Who is the quintessential American writer? Whenever anyone starts kicking around that question, some predictable names turn up: Mark Twain, Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison. Rarely, though, does…
Throughout English-speaking history, up until about 50 years ago, there had always been men famous in their day for writing beautiful poetry, from William Shakespeare, to Lord Byron, to Robert Frost.... Posted By: Christopher L, 10/23/2026 2:01:48 PM A poem by Anne Carson,…
Hanoi inspires many beautiful emotions in artistic creation. - Mr. Bang Viet, having been a member of the judging panel for the Bui Xuan Phai Award - For the Love of Hanoi for many years, and receiving the Grand Prize this year,…
When Li moved to the United States from Beijing in 1996, she intended to pursue a Ph.D. in immunology at the University of Iowa. But soon, the city of literature’s influence changed those plans. “When I arrived in Iowa City, someone…
Psychiatrist, M.Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled, wrote “life is difficult.” But what can we do about it? From the richest to the poorest, to those in-between, we all have crosses to bear that would push us under…
Non-members can read the full article here. “The first draft of anything is shit.” — Ernest Hemingway As much as we want to romanticize the writing process, the reality is that it never comes out perfect on the first try. Hemingway…
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