by Nicolette Westfall In My Happy Life, Lydia Millet takes the view that the members of society that do not fit in are insane to various degrees and turns it on its head. The main character, an unnamed woman, narrates her story from a room in an abandoned mental health building. She traces her life [...]
A Good Death
by Grace Andreacchi Enough about the writer’s life, let’s think about the writer’s death for a change. It’s sure to come, after all, for of all things nothing is more certain than death. A big subject, and arguably the starting point for much if not all of the world’s literature. Without death we would have [...]
Virginia Woolf and the Insanity of Criticism in Mrs. Dalloway
Initially, I intended to discuss the complexities of oppression and insanity, looking at both the Great War veteran, Septimus Warren Smith and Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway, comparing the pressures of war and violence to suffering the transition of going from Clarissa to Mrs. Richard Dalloway, arguing that it is those that work continually to conform that [...]
Mara Zalite (1952 – )
by Zinta Aistars Words splash at my feet, the voice of my blood talks, whispers and fills the chambers. Glittering river. Here, I am. ~ from the poem, “Language,” by M. Zalite What we are denied, we often learn to treasure most. Of those basics that a human being needs to live life well, surely [...]
An American Writer in Paris
by Grace Andreacchi Things are different in Paris. The food is exquisite, the apartment buildings, even in the slums, are high, elegant and decorated like wedding cakes, the light is pale lavender all day long, and writers are, quite simply, gods. It makes no difference if you’re published or unpublished, famous or totally unknown, just [...]
Help Equals Hope
Part II of our spotlight on Karen Harrington, author of Janeology “There’s a collective denial even when mothers come right and say, “I really shouldn’t be with my kids,” says Nancy Scheper-Hughes, medical anthropologist. “Prior to a homicide, lots of lay people know these men and women are having difficulty parenting,” says Jill Korbin, child [...]
NAWW Telesummit: Create Your Very Own Passionate Writing Life
Our good friend Sheri McConnell, founder of the National Association of Women Writers, is hosting her 7th Annual Event on April 23rd and 24th. This year’s event is focused on helping you Create Your Very Own Passionate Writing Life! This event is completely free and even if you can’t attend, make sure you sign up [...]
Aspazija (1868 – 1943)
by Zinta Aistars Several Latvian women writers stand out as offering insight into the earliest seeds of feminism—Latvian style, if you will—or, simply, what it meant, and means, to be a woman with a voice. Few, if any, are better known than Aspazija. It was only in the latter part of the 19th century that [...]
Is All Fair
by Grace Andreacchi I recently heard an interview with the writer Orhan Pamuk in which he was asked – had it changed his life much, winning the Nobel Prize? I’m a little bit in love with Pamuk these days (those big brown eyes, those labyrinthine torture gardens of the mind…), and listened eagerly for what [...]
Honey, Your Man Doesn’t Care about Martha Stewart: Confessions of a Slacker Housewife
by Nicolette Westfall I wasn’t attracted to the book initially, because it has a yellow and pink cover, with ironing board, pearls, and a woman’s high heel, but something must have drawn me to it, because I picked it up, bought it, and read it within hours. Essentially, Muffy Mead-Ferro’s argument is that women don’t [...]
