Notes from The Writer's Corner
Listen to our conversation with founder and editor of Open Secrets Rachel Kramer Bussel. Plus—mark your calendar for next week for NYTimes bestselling author Domenica Ruta and more!
This week in The Writer’s Corner, we were joined by founder and editor of personal essay magazine Open Secrets Rachel Kramer Bussel for a discussion on all things essay writing! Rachel offered amazing insights as both a writer and an editor (on how she has successfully been published and what she looks at when she’s selecting essays herself). If you are writing and pitching essays, don’t miss this one! Link to recording below.
A few key points from our discussion:
• How essay writing can help you understand yourself in deeper ways.
• How to write about the same general topic but find fresh angles.
• Ways to make your essay and pitch stand out from the rest.
• How to figure out what point you are trying to make.
• And so much more!
Next week …
May 19 at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST
Domenica Ruta for A Craft Conversation
Domenica Ruta is the NYTimes bestselling author of the memoir With or Without You and the novel Last Day, a 2019 NYT Notable book of the year, as well as co-editor of the anthology We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart and Humor. She's published short fiction and essays in the Iowa Review, the Boston Review, the Indiana Review, Epoch, Ninth Letter, The Cut, and elsewhere, and has been anthologized a handful of times, most notably in Wanting. She publishes personal essays with zero regularity and lots of love for free on her Substack.
Her latest novel, All the Mothers, is on sale now everywhere books are sold. To find out if she doing a reading or event in your area, check out her website or follow her on Instagram at @domenicaruta.
Writing prompt to inspire …
Read this quote: “We’re all different and we’re all imperfect, and the imperfections are what makes each of us and our work interesting. We create pieces reflective of who we are, and if insecurity is part of who we are, then our work will have a greater degree of truth as a result.” - From The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
When you think of the word imperfect in relation to yourself, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Write about it.
Appreciated this conversation very much!