The MUSE has spoken! Michele Flynn’s essay, “From the Garden,” is a winner in our first-ever Monthly Muse writing prompt on Parenthood/Childhood. From the Garden by Michele Flynn We live in a small city, and tend a shady backyard the size of two Ford Explorers. Half of the yard is covered in paving stones, and […]
From the Garden | Michele Flynn Read More »
On reunion and loss, on being back in the fold and being caught in the web, on free will and the things we cannot change. One woman’s story about finding the family she never had and the heartbreak that can come from having so many people to love. –NMW
Hidden in a Suitcase | Michele Leavitt Read More »
A murderous sheriff, an indigent ex-baseball star, and a lone boy trying to make sense of the madness his town has grown accustomed to. In his stirring recollection of small-town Texas, our Nonfiction Winner’s empathetic portrayal brings each character to life and his lyrical prose makes the essay sing. —NMW
A Brief and Necessary Madness | Kirk Wilson Read More »
For anyone who’s ever shouted across the dinner table, debating with a loved one about war, dissent, and the true meaning of patriotism, Marsh’s essay will resonate deeply. —NMW
Pictures in Leaves | Carol D. Marsh Read More »
Susan Nathiel of Middlefield, CT has won the 39th New Millennium Nonfiction Prize for “Hearing Silence.” She will receive $1,000 and publication both online and in print. “The work recounts the aftermath of a tragedy, and examines the questions and culpabilities that survivors are left to unravel.” –NMW
Hearing Silence | Susan Nathiel Read More »
Karen Hunt of Woodland Hills, CA has one the 40th New Millennium Nonfiction Prize for “Into the World.” She will receive $1,000 and publication both online and in print. “At ten years old, Karen and her family embarked on a journey around the world. This essay chronicles those turbulent and eye-opening travels and how they continue to
INTO THE WORLD | Karen Hunt Read More »
Nonfiction Writing Contest 24 (2009)
First Place
I revised this piece so many times – adding, subtracting, changing…maybe because like all my work, it bridges the gap between what I experienced and what I know/feel about that experience. To paraphrase Forster, how do I know what I feel until I see what I write? Writing isn’t just about the words on the page, but about living and how you construct it… about exploring who you are, what the world expects you to be, mapping an intellectual and emotional cartography. And being able to send those maps out again, rejection after rejection after rejection… — Britton Gildersleeve
Anomie | Britton Gildersleeve Read More »
‘Wildfire-Hellfire’ was one of many hair-raising experiences I lived during a fourteen year wild land firefighting career. It was the most exciting time of my life and after reliving the adventures over and over again in my mind, I’ve come to the point where I want to tell my story. Transforming thoughts to paper has been as challenging an adventure as it has been enjoyable. I love the craft and strive to put the reader with me, as totally into the moment as possible, to let them feel the intensity. For me, that’s the magic of words. —Ralph Ryan
Wildfire-Hellfire | Ralph Ryan Read More »
Poetry Writing Contest 24 (2009)
First Place
I began this piece by narrating my encounters with snakes. But it remained flat until I accepted that something deeper was going on. Time for research. Reptile science proved to be as poetic as myth and symbols; I grudgingly came to realize that snake “dream” consciousness painfully exposes humans’ failure to evolve beyond our primitive, violent origins. At the same time I felt a comic detachment from the reptile “philosophy,” much as we regard our own dream state. You cannot simply write what you already know. Writing must change your ideas or it is merely report writing. — M. Garrett Bauman
Snake Dreaming: Speculations on Human and Reptile Consciousness | M. Garrett Bauman Read More »
Nonfiction Writing Contest XXIII (2008)
First Place
Listen to your work as you read it aloud. Ears don’t lie. Rewrite, then rewrite again. Put it aside for a while, then return and rewrite again. Read it to someone whose ear you trust and embrace the feedback, If they say “get rid of a phrase, a sentence, a section, a character,” take however long you need to stew, then open yourself to the critique. If you cut material, stash it in your own slush pile to be used somewhere else. The slash and burn part of writing is exhilarating. And, yes, less is more.. — Patricia Brieschke
Cracking Open | Patricia Brieschke Read More »
