Tag: writing
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University of Iowa Alumni News & Happy Friday
It was a delight to be featured in Alumni News for my alma mater, the University of Iowa. I spent four glorious years writing in Iowa City and the many hours of critiquing and workshopping are nostalgic and smile-inducing to this day. Moreover, I’m so pleased at the shoutout for Off Campus Writers Workshop (my…
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Making the Short List: Fiction Prize
Looks like I forgot to share this nugget of delicious news. Last week I found myself echoing a familiar statement, “I’m not really a fiction writer. It’s not my strong suit.” A writer friend lovingly pointed out that I was recently shortlisted by Five South Literary for a Fiction Prize. She wasn’t wrong. I was…
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Book News: Writing About COVID w/ Capsule Stories
Let’s get real: it was excruciating to write about COVID while existing through COVID. Whatever I managed to get on the page never felt right and it usually didn’t follow any kind of format, likely because I felt like I was drowning- drowning in e-learning, in uncertainty, in anxiety, and just about every other stressor…
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Book Release: Turning Points
It’s been a surreal week and I was able to do something I’ve dreamt of for so long: walk into a book store and hold a copy of my book. In sharing this news, I think it’s important to infuse this caveat: I’ve had many other writing/book projects fail. I had a children’s book and…
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Overheard: St. Patrick’s Day Morning
Yes, I recognize that the balloons in the living room are more blue than green. I did not appreciate that realization at 11pm last night. Kids sleep through vacuums, thunderstorms, and house alarms, but drop one balloon softly into their room and they will stir and thrash in their blankets while I cower in the…
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Elegy in a Pandemic: Letter to myself
(today I participated in a workshop through Off Campus Writers Workshop and there were some brilliant grief prompts presented by Chen Chen, who served as instructor/moderator. Here is what came out) Dear ambitious scholar, Grief is my dog’s collar tucked away in a box, high on the shelf in my closet. My favorite shirt, the…
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Ode to The Riviera
The last time I went to a concert at The Riviera was a lifetime ago. Truly. I think it was 2004. I hadn’t even met my husband at that point. The concert I attended? The Killers…who were baby famous at the time (remember Mr. Brightside?). The music was great but what stuck with me most…
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Here we go!
Either what’s old is new again or WordPress just never stopped being cool. Regardless, I’m happy to be back. Things are eerily familiar and absurdly different. WordPress was the site of my very first blog post way back in the day (2008? Earlier?!). Back then my biggest concerns were commercial real estate, Chicago restaurants, vampire…
Kelly Q. Anderson 