ARCHIVE FOR Writers React

In this series, "Why I Write," members of the Grub community share what compels them to put words onto paper day after day. In this edition, Tanushree Baidya shares the importance of pushing through and keep writing and exploring. 

 

I am taking a writing workshop and one of the assignments is to write about beauty or beautiful things. It is a simple assignment. The purpose is to make you more observant of your world and your life. Groan! 

In this series, "Why I Write," members of the Grub community share what compels them to put words onto paper day after day. In this edition, Eileen Tomarchio on writing about change.

 

I write because wasps made nests in the soffits again.

I write because the neighbors look so young now.

I write because my husband is turning soil in the garden.

I write because my 12th grade English teacher returned my Truffaut paper with a wobble of her chin and press of my hand, and I thought I’d done something wrong.

In this series, "Why I Write," members of the Grub community share what compels them to put words onto paper day after day. In this edition, Memoir Incubator graduate Priscilla Bourgoine describes how writing is her way of making a difference.

 

Sixteen summers ago, I visited the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway

Amid controversy, the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan. Though he didn't respond to the Committee's messages for a few weeks, Dylan finally confirmed that he would absolutely attend the ceremony, "if it's at all possible." Needless to say, the literary community has been astir. Here, Boyah Farah, a Judy Layzer fellow in the Memoir Incubator program, on his support for Dylan and how the songwriter's lyrics speak to him.

 

If you want to change the world, all you need is a guitar, some courage, and a voice that could cut the …

In this series, "Why I Write," members of the Grub community share what compels them to put words onto paper day after day. In this edition, Natasha Kirker writes about being loud in print where she isn't in person.

 

Initially, in person, I am quiet and reserved. I like to observe the world—listen to people’s words, watch their mannerisms, and collect notions of who they might be.  I’ve had a lot of rare experiences in my thirty-two years of life, but I rarely ever share them—usually it’s someone else telling someone else about all the things I’ve gone through. …