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An Impromptu Writing Challenge
I am someone who likes to feel productive, which is probably why I’ll never really retire. This makes my current aimlessness feel...

Lisa Colburn
Jan 214 min read
53 views
2 comments


The Gift of Story
I never set out to write children’s fiction. My creative writing pursuits were more commonly centered on nonfiction, the occasional poem,...

Barbara Leary
Aug 28, 20232 min read
124 views
0 comments


Share Your Writing in a Market Street Writers Anthology!
NOTE TO PROSPECTIVE CONTRIBUTORS: Please be sure to follow the submission guidelines in the PDF below. Thank you! In April 2012 I took my...

Lisa Colburn
Jul 23, 20232 min read
302 views
2 comments


Poems, Poets & Prompts: It's National Poetry Month!
April is National Poetry Month, and I feel like celebrating! I haven’t always loved poetry. When I was an undergrad studying English...

Lisa Colburn
Apr 14, 20232 min read
114 views
2 comments


Reading Poems at the Hotel Chelsea
I consider myself more an essayist than a poet, but early in 2020 I took a poetry class with Linda Barnes through the Therapeutic Writing...

Lisa Colburn
Jan 29, 20234 min read
149 views
3 comments


Summertime, and the Reading is Easy
For those of us who are so inclined, one of the great pleasures of summer is carving out more time to read. I mostly choose my summer...

Lisa Colburn
Jul 31, 20223 min read
161 views
2 comments


My Father, the Writer
Whenever I came home from college, where I was studying English literature, my father, Wendall Kinney, would tease me: “What are you...

Lisa Colburn
Jun 19, 20226 min read
262 views
3 comments


Creating in the Middle of Things
In the past few weeks my best ideas have come to me while lying on the acupuncture table, my skin bristling with stainless steel needles...

Lisa Colburn
May 31, 20224 min read
115 views
0 comments


Visiting Emily Dickinson's House
I’ve been rooting around in my workshop notebooks for the past few months looking for material I may want to develop (a practice I highly...

Lisa Colburn
Apr 21, 20223 min read
103 views
4 comments


Permission Granted
A few weeks ago my husband and I had dinner with friends who asked about the creativity coach training I’m taking with author and...

Lisa Colburn
Mar 30, 20224 min read
178 views
0 comments


Reading Incarcerated Writers
For the past two and a half years, I have been responding to the writing of incarcerated people from around the United States as a...

Lisa Colburn
Feb 1, 20223 min read
147 views
0 comments


Retreat + Journal = Transformation
Last night I arrived home from a five-day personal writing retreat with a couple of friends at the Highlights Foundation’s retreat center...

Lisa Colburn
Oct 22, 20213 min read
176 views
2 comments


Listening for Your Original Voice
Last month, after my mother and I were both fully vaccinated, I flew to Maine to visit her for Mother’s Day. She picked me up in Portland...

Lisa Colburn
Jun 1, 20214 min read
162 views
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The Gift of Legacy
The 120-year-old embroidery piece my grandmother created when she was a teen hangs on my office wall. It was a sewing exercise for her to...

Sue McCollum
May 1, 20214 min read
147 views
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The Week That Changed My Life
“Tell me something I can’t forget.”—Pat Schneider, founder of Amherst Writers & Artists I can’t forget Pat Schneider’s charming yellow...

Lisa Colburn
Apr 8, 20213 min read
205 views
7 comments


Writers on Reading
March is National Reading Month, which I am happy to celebrate since—like most writers—I love to read! My earliest reading memories are...

Lisa Colburn
Mar 23, 202112 min read
241 views
1 comment


Bye for Now, Bailey
Everything you go through grows you – Bob Sima, “No Mud, No Lotus” On Monday night I had the honor of hosting a special event to launch...

Lisa Colburn
Feb 25, 20213 min read
283 views
6 comments


Finding Joy
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it...

Lisa Colburn
Jan 2, 20213 min read
394 views
6 comments


Remembering Pat Schneider
It wasn’t Emily Dickinson who put Amherst, Massachusetts on the map for me: it was Pat Schneider. Pat was a gifted poet, author, and...

Lisa Colburn
Aug 24, 20204 min read
500 views
0 comments


Phenomenal Women
In early March I offered this video of Maya Angelou reading her poem "Phenomenal Woman" as a writing prompt to celebrate International...

Lisa Colburn
May 10, 20204 min read
85 views
0 comments
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