Story in “Jamaican voice” garners U.K. prize
Susan Siddeley’s humorous ”After You, Mr. Mayor” has won first prize in a British contest, the first-annual Malton Literature Festival short story competition. The tale is based on her memory of an incident that occurred years ago while she was living in Jamaica. She is particularly pleased with the win because the story presented a unique challenge: writing in a “Jamaican voice.” Susan [...]
Monday, February 28th, 2011
Memoir Writing: The Muse and the Music
by Ann C. Walker, Guest Blogger I had known since spring of this year that the 100th anniversary of the founding of my high school band was coming up. Information and registration forms were sent months in advance, from Wisconsin, USA, to my home in Santiago, Chile, asking me, as a former band member, to [...]
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
Tilya Gallay Helfield’s memoir “Blink” garners prize
Tilya Helfield of Toronto, Canada, recently earned first prize in the non-fiction category of the 2010 OASIS Journal competition for her short memoir “Blink.” Tilya’s story will appear in the most recent edition of OASIS Journal, an annual anthology that showcases creative writing by international writers age 50 and over. It’s published by Tucson, Arizona-based Imago [...]
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Writing Memoir: You Are in the Room with Me
by Adrian the Elder, Guest Blogger I love to record everything I see, and the method I chose for most of my life was photography. It never occurred to me then, not even for a moment, to write anything down. Why bother doing that when all I had to do was take a photo? No [...]
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
“Djinxed” in Indonesia: Ellen Hawkins’s new memoir
Ellen Hawkins, a Canadian author residing in Santiago, Chile, announces the publication of her memoir Djinxed. Ellen participated in my workshop series at Los Parronales Writers’ Retreat in Santiago, in February 2010. Here, in her own words, is some intriguing background on her book: When my husband and I and our two small children arrived in Indonesia in 1971 this populous [...]
Monday, October 18th, 2010
Finding Voice in Memoir: My Father’s Final Gift to Me
by Dace Mara Zacs, Guest Blogger A brief exchange over long-distance telephone one night: “Dace, your pappy is dead. You come to Latvia of course.” “Ja, of course,” I said to Aivar, my cousin. “I’m coming.” This was not entirely unexpected. Before my father left on his holiday to Latvia, I’d begged him to assure [...]
Friday, October 1st, 2010
