Read more about the article Poetry and Worth

Poetry and Worth

As Gioia asks, how did Kool Herc, the father of hip-hop, change the very nature of poetry without an English degree? There is only one conclusion, he asserts: today’s poets do not need a degree. They write while they work as baristas, bookstore clerks, or in law, medicine, and business. Social media is the great equalizer: an online journal requires virtually nothing but someone’s time. Gioia exults that this new Bohemia of poets, existing outside the academic economy, is a vigorous alternative culture. “They have diversified, democratized and localized American poetry,” he crows.

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Read more about the article scribo ergo sum

scribo ergo sum

There’s a difference between young writers who are trying to “find their voice” and faking the voice. “The Voice” is the person the reader hears telling the story or reading the poem. So whereas you may indeed be able to sound like Anne Rice or Tom Clancy for a few amazing paragraphs, no matter how hard you try the real you will come through. And both the reader and you will hit a wall like an egg-splat when that happens. The reader will say something like, hey, wait just a minute . . . you’re no Stephen King or whomever you are trying to sound like. That loss of trust is catastrophic.

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Read more about the article Campers, Travelers, and Locals Browse Through the Woods for Hidden Treasures

Campers, Travelers, and Locals Browse Through the Woods for Hidden Treasures

While Through the Woods offers a large assortment of local antiques dated all the way from the late 1800s to a few 1990s collectibles, several vendors are local people looking to sell their handmade goods. The store offers Sam Hill Coffee Company, Simple Goods’ lavender neck and body pillows, Susy Bee’s handmade soaps, Wicks and Knits handmade candles, Farm Fresh Stitches needlepoint, Flaherty’s Maple Products, and The Watershed Journal literary magazine featuring local artists, photographers, writers and poets.

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Read more about the article Local NW PA Literary Publications

Local NW PA Literary Publications

Writers in the Northwestern Pennsylvania area are very fortunate to have three literary Journals interested in local voices. This fact is astonishing— how many regions can boast of having such a treasure-trove of publications that prefer the work of the area’s writers? While they each have different missions, they share a focus on our region and our storytellers.

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Read more about the article Discovering Originality

Discovering Originality

Our communities are not always sure of how to handle original writing. While some groundbreaking works are taught to middle schoolers, others are burned or banned. While some writers are hailed as saviors of humanity, others are excommunicated or censored (or worse). Those who toe the line of social norms and challenge society to question their pillars are not only risking being misunderstood, they are asking their readers to take a risk as well.

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Read more about the article When A Poet Goes Long

When A Poet Goes Long

Switching genres may make one a better writer— eventually— but it can play havoc with one’s confidence. There are many times I sit back and ask myself what I’m doing. Is this project worth the time and effort? Is it meaningful? It’s one thing when a single poem goes nowhere, but two years of work? That’s quite an investment to ultimately see fall flat.

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Read more about the article Two More Things

Two More Things

We have all survived our English classes  --  elementary, middle, high school. . . some  of us college.  Many taught by the best intentioned people, teachers we ever had.  Because they knew if we could not communicate, could not write clearly we’d encounter problems from our relationships to our employment. And yet there were two things not taught. These things I learned years after my comp classes but from my comp prof, Art Seamans, who wrestled with and continues to wrestle with the Poseidon nature of language.  He ultimately forced the two blessings which follow.

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Read more about the article When “Show, Don’t Tell” Breaks Down

When “Show, Don’t Tell” Breaks Down

Telling is appropriate for many things in a story. It allows you to better control the pace and feel of events than going full force with “showing.” Showing is good for some types of writing more than others. There needs to be a mixture of telling and showing, the proportions of each depend on the story the writer is trying to tell and how he wants it told. To a large degree “Show Not Tell” is pretty flippant advice – not always wrong, but not the solution for everything.

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Read more about the article Fusion Atelier Offers a Taste of Art and Culture to Main Street, Brookville

Fusion Atelier Offers a Taste of Art and Culture to Main Street, Brookville

Visitors to Fusion Atelier are always sure to find something interesting happening at this creative space, which partners with many community organizations and individuals to support regional art and culture. Both Hoffman and Stein say they are often inspired by the exchange of ideas, experiences and stories that happen around them.

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