Posts by Donna Miscolta
Some New Books by Seattle Friends
I have a book coming out in this year. So do a number of my friends here in Seattle and little beyond. I’m excited about reading their books. Here are a few. Kathleen Alcala The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island is due out this fall from University of Washington…
Read MoreLonny Kaneko Reminds Us to Say “No” to Racism
Last December, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said he didn’t not know whether he would have supported or opposed the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. When pressed, he said he hated the concept of internment camps. Yet his flimsily veiled as well as his openly racist rhetoric encourage an atmosphere of hate and…
Read MorePowerful Stories from Mia Alvar
This February marks the thirtieth anniversary of the People Power Revolution that ended the Marcos regime in the Philippines in 1986. That year, from February 22-25, two million Filipino citizens, joined by political, military, and religious groups, occupied Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, a main thoroughfare in Metro Manila. It was a remarkable non-violent revolt…
Read MoreSo I’m Taking This Class
It’s been decades since I’ve taken a weekly class with writing assignments. My days are spent at work in a cubicle downtown, my evenings as much as possible on my writing—right after doing the NYT crossword puzzle online. That little celebratory ditty that plays upon correct completion of the puzzle is a nice reward, but…
Read MoreSome of My Favorite Reads of the Year
One year quite a few years ago, I committed to reading a book a week, which only amounts to fifty-two books for the year. Nowadays, I’m lucky to reach three books a month. (Don’t check my Goodreads entries because I’m terrible about updating my list.) It’s a sad number given the stack of books on…
Read MoreRagdale Delights
Among the pleasures of an artist residency are the artists you meet there. During my recent Ragdale residency, I landed among a most congenial and talented bunch. It was great learning about and from them. If you don’t already know these artists, let me introduce you to them. Virginia Bell—Poet and author of From the…
Read MoreWho’s Who in (My) Fiction
As I anticipate the publication of my next book Hola and Goodbye from Carolina Wren Press a year from now, I also anticipate the assumptions that the readers among my family will surely make about the characters in the book—that this or that character resembles this or that family member. Let’s test those assumptions. My…
Read MoreHow I’m Learning to Teach Things I Didn’t Know I Knew
There’s an expectation that when you’ve had a book published you know enough to teach someone else how to do the same—not just the part about actually getting the thing into print, but the craft part too. Since my novel came out in 2011, I’ve been invited on occasion to teach a class or give…
Read MoreGhosts, Pie, and Magic (and Writing)
It might be an addiction—the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference. For six of the last seven years I’ve gone. Before I started the run at the PT conference, I’d been to others and enjoyed them all—Squaw Valley, Napa Valley, VONA, Bread Loaf. Two summers ago I attended the Taos Summer Writers Conference. I loved that one,…
Read MoreCharms
I couldn’t write. My desk was a mess. Books and papers and really all kinds of crap were smeared across, under, and around it. It’s taking a month of weekends to pull everything from the shelves, off and underneath the desk, and out of sloppily stacked boxes to sort and file, recycle and toss. And…
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