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Experience Required: Back to School
by Lisa Peet 1. “Who is that?” “That is … the world’s oldest living freshman, and the walking epitome of the decline of modern education.” —Dr. Philip Barbay, Back to School I find myself thinking of...
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The Vintage Years: How the Older Brain Both Facilitates and Benefits from...
by Francine Toder, Ph.D. Many decades ago, as a graduate student studying the aging brain, the sum of what I learned filled little more than a couple of handwritten notebook pages. At that time common...
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Experience Required: Growing the Roots
by Anne Korkeakivi My publishing career as a fiction writer bloomed after I turned forty. But my life as a fiction writer began long before then. Getting published is not all there is to being a...
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Experience Required: True, Truer, Truest
by Elizabeth Cohen 1. I was not young to be looking for love, and not young either to be trying my hand at a new genre, fiction. But I did both in my fifties. Or maybe they both came looking for me....
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Experience Required: The Middle of the Road
by Lisa Peet 1. I’m driving down the Major Deegan Expressway from Tarrytown, back of the Volvo piled high with black trash bags. I’ve been cleaning out my mother’s garage; if we can get rid of...
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BEST OF BLOOM: Failed Novels, and Other Sore Subjects
Throughout August we are revisiting some of the “best of” Bloom from the past year. Following is an encore post, originally published on March 5, 2013 In light of the National Book Critics Circle Award...
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BEST OF BLOOM: Anna Keesey’s “Keyhole”
Throughout August we are revisiting some of the “best of” Bloom from the past year. Following is an encore post, originally published on January 25, 2013. by Anna Keesey A few nights ago, while signing...
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BEST OF BLOOM: No Other Way Out
Throughout August we are revisiting some of the “best of” Bloom from the past year. Following is an encore post, originally published on November 22, 2012. by Scott Sparling I lie about how long it...
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BEST OF BLOOM: Experience Required: The End of Love (Letters)
In August and September we are revisiting some of the “best of” Bloom from the past year. Following is an encore post, originally published on March 15, 2013. by Swati Khurana I love love letters. My...
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Experience Required: Does Publishing A Novel Change Your Life?
by Nichole Bernier My book’s launch party felt a little like a wedding—even with my five children racing around, jacked up on chocolate-dipped strawberries. The bash was in an old brownstone in Boston....
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Lost and Found in Alaska: How Stories Find Us
by Colleen Mondor In 1932 two men were involved in a fatal crevasse fall on Mt. McKinley. Allen Carpé and Theodore Koven were scientists and mountaineers taking part in the Cosmic Ray Expedition. Armed...
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See It Then, See It Now
by Dena Santoro A vagrant wanders empty ruins. Suddenly he’s wealthy. But don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth, without complicated explanation, so...
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EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: “Match Dot Comedy”
by Susannah B. Mintz The following is an adapted excerpt from Match Dot Comedy, a memoir recently released by Amazon. From author Susannah Mintz: “Match Dot Comedy” is a comedy of errors that explores...
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Getting Started, Keeping Going: Peter Ferry’s Tricks of the Trade
by Peter Ferry What do I do when I’m having trouble writing? Well, first of all, that seldom happens to me. I’m the equivalent of the chatty uncle or loquacious neighbor you avoid; I just won’t shut...
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EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: The Story and The Telling
by Shawn Vestal Inventing a story always requires inventing two stories: the story as told and the “real” one, in its chronological, linear procession. These stories shadow each other in the way of all...
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EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: “Up ‘Til Now”
by Lauren Francis-Sharma I was in line waiting to have a novel autographed by a famous author who had written her first critically acclaimed book at the ripe age of 25. She was brilliant, thoughtful,...
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Messing Up the Drawing Room: Wharton, Olsen, and the Quest for Validation
by Jessica Levine 1. In her autobiography, A Backward Glance, Edith Wharton recounts her initiation into writing: My first attempt (at the age of eleven) was a novel, which began: “Oh, how do you do,...
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The Fraudulent Writer
by A.X. Ahmad In my early 30s, I signed up for my first fiction writing class through an adult education program. We met one evening a week in the teacher’s freezing kitchen and sat around her scarred...
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BEST OF BLOOM: “Up ‘Til Now”
The following is an encore post, originally published at Bloom on April 23, 2014 by Lauren Francis-Sharma I was in line waiting to have a novel autographed by a famous author who had written her first...
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EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: Hot Dogs & Maid Service
by Bonnie ZoBell Explaining to a writing student who’s just said she’s going to be on the bestseller list next year that it’s a little tougher than that isn’t one of my favorite jobs. Do I tell her...
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