ARCHIVE FOR Jenn Scheck-Kahn

With the arrival of the holidays, writers can expect to receive a bevy of pithy t-shirts, snarky mugs, and bookmarks or plates with inspiring quotes. As much as we love these literary artifacts, wouldn’t it be great to receive gifts that summon your inner muse or help you find an audience for your writing? Here they are, comrades: the five gifts you really want. Now how to slip this list to your loved ones?

Between the covers of a literary magazine which has, at the very most, a circulation of a few thousand, a writer earns a first writing credit. Beyond mom and dad, adoring friends, a nosy aunt, a devoted yet literature--adverse sibling, a fiction writer’s first audience is comprised of--not  exactly the readers and subscribers of the literary magazine who come later--but an editor who mined the short story from the slush pile of submissions by way of her staff, read it, then read it again, then read it a third time, and with each read became more convinced that ...

Every few weeks, a member of the Grub community recommends a book they find helpful or inspirational from a craft perspective. This week, instructor Jenn Scheck-Kahn recommends one of her favorite short stories. 

It’s embarrassing how many times in my teaching life I’ve hauled out “Samuel,” by Grace Paley for students to discuss. Part of what makes it a tantalizing text is its size – roughly 1,100 plainspoken words – that, in classic Paley style, draws its reader in with ordinary daily doings – a subway ride in NY – and then crushes your heart with a ...

I didn’t notice when I stopped writing. It happened because of a scheduling disruption too ordinary to complain about, no matter how enormous the effect: I lost childcare for my infant daughter. Also: I was pregnant again, although I didn’t know that yet. It took two months to find a new part-time babysitter and two more months to find someone reliable. What time I had to myself went to satisfying my responsibilities to other people. What time I had left after that went for napping, not writing.