NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: April 26, 2012
April 26, 2012 By 1 Comment
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative.
Here are some that get me going:
- Burger King goes cage free
- I love it when fact supports fiction
- I’m sorry. The average wedding costs what?
- Violence in America reaches a new low — or high — but this is hideous
- As ever, we depend on the fabulous Frank Deford to ask the hard question
Surely you have something to say using one of these as your news peg.
Looking for inspiration or guidance on how to write a personal essay? Look at my categories for NPR essays, parenting essays, and several other topics. All of the pieces there have been published, or have aired on the radio. If those don’t work, see the interactive calendar for more inspiration. And write on.
See a typo, a grammar flub, my (ever-present) overuse of commas? Point it out, and I’ll throw you in the pool for a monthly free book giveaway. Which book? One of mine – your choice – all of which were professionally copy edited, thank goodness.
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: April 2, 2012
April 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative.
Here are some that get me going:
- There was a flap over this? Well, duh
- The genetic link of PTSD
- Love him though I do, this quote is just the eensiest bit self-serving
- Lookin’ good at 60 and keeping up with the times
- It’s take your dog to work day, every day
- Such good news
- Take your wand and shove it
Surely you have something to say using one of these as your news peg.
Looking for inspiration or guidance on how to write a personal essay? Look at my categories for NPR essays, parenting essays, and several other topics. All of the pieces there have been published, or have aired on the radio. If those don’t work, see the interactive calendar for more inspiration. And write on.
See a typo, a grammar flub, my (ever-present) overuse of commas? Point it out, and I’ll throw you in the pool for a monthly free book giveaway. Which book? One of mine – your choice – all of which were professionally copy edited, thank goodness.
Your New Best Friend:
The Deadline Calendar
GO ON, TRY my interactive calendar of emotional high holy days, regular-version high holy days and more. Hover your cursor over a cinnamon-colored date to see what pops up. Use it to start personal essays, radio pieces and op-eds to submit on deadline. How? Look three months out for radio ideas; six to twelve for magazine pieces. Pick it, write it, submit it. You’re a writer. That’s what writers do.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | Jun » | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5May, 5 2012Cinco de MayoIt is Cinco de Mayo, commemorating the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces in 1862. This is a great one for everything from a memoir about someone else’s cultural holidays, some food memoir perhaps, or a piece of memoir placed at celebration for the day. | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12May, 12 2012Hurricanes Finally Get Named for Men, As WellIt was on this day in 1978 that hurricanes also were named for men. Previously named only for women, this seems like justice, however late. What’s in a name? My sister has something to say about that, named as she is, for a racehorse. I told this story on NPR’s All Things Considered. Have a look. | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16May, 16 2012Fiddlehead TimeIt’s Fiddlehead time. Fiddlehead ferns that is, sold and eaten while they are still rolled up. Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption. Called a fiddlehead because it resembles the curled ornamentation (called a scroll) on the end of a stringed instrument, such as a fiddle, it is It is also called a crozier since it also resembles the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the shepherd’s crook. Got some food memoir? I lap it up, and write it down here. | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23May, 23 2012The Father of Taxomony is BornOn this day in 1707 was the birth of Carl Linneaus, the man who created order out of chaos by creating a classification system for naming and identifying plants. I created one of those, though mine divides by people, asking if you are either a burger or a burrito. Check it out. | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27May, 27 2012Rachel Carson’s BirthdayOn this day in 1907 was the birth of Rachel Carson, one of the greatest advocates the earth will ever know. The New Yorker magazine took a chance on her, first publishing her in 1951 and in 1962 serializing Silent Spring, in which she took on the subject of the ravaging effects of pesticides. The book is still regarded as the cornerstone of the new environmentalism. She inspires me, and I might write a piece of memoir about reading that book or what she has meant to me. You? What creative inspiration does she provoke in you? |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: March 23, 2012
March 22, 2012 By 2 Comments
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: March 11, 2012
March 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative.
Here are some that get me going:
- Help “spread the word to end the word”
- And the rich just get…weirder?
- Well, this is just too damn embarrassing
- Or maybe it’s just a little pogonophobia
- Alcohol in movies linked to…wait for it…binge drinking
Surely you have something to say using one of these as your news peg.
Looking for inspiration or guidance on how to write a personal essay? Look at my categories for NPR essays, parenting essays, and several other topics. All of the pieces there have been published, or have aired on the radio. If those don’t work, see the interactive calendar for more inspiration. And write on.
See a typo, a grammar flub, my (ever-present) overuse of commas? Point it out, and I’ll throw you in the pool for a monthly free book giveaway. Which book? One of mine – your choice – all of which were professionally copy edited, thank goodness.
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: March 3, 2012
March 3, 2012 By 2 Comments
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative. [Read more...]
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: February 25, 2012
February 25, 2012 By 2 Comments
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative.
Writing Memoir. New You Can Use: February 19, 2012
February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative. Here are some that get me going: [Read more...]
Writing Memoir. News You Can Use: February 11, 2012
February 11, 2012 By 1 Comment
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative. Here are some that get me going:
- Yet another big cave on birth control
- The FBI had a file on him. And them. And you?
- Empowering girls, one doll at a time
- Downsizing a meal: Everyone said they would not do it, but they did
- The most popular video-on-demand of all time? Really?
Surely you have something to say using one of these as your news peg.
Looking for inspiration or guidance on how to write a personal essay? Look at my categories for NPR essays, parenting essays, and several other topics. All of the pieces there have been published, or have aired on the radio. If those don’t work, see the interactive calendar for more inspiration. And write on.
See a typo, a grammar flub, my (ever-present) overuse of commas? Point it out, and I’ll throw you in the pool for a monthly free book giveaway. Which book? One of mine – your choice – all of which were professionally copy edited, thank goodness.
How to Write Memoir. News You Can Use: February 4, 2012
February 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
NEWS YOU CAN USE. Maybe you saw these stories. Maybe you missed them, but these are among the pieces I’ve read recently that might elicit some form of short memoir – an op-ed, or personal essay – from you. Once a week I’ll bring you news pieces I find provocative. Here are some that get me going: [Read more...]
