While the semicolon has long been a favorite topic of discussion at grammarian cocktail parties, the fact that this intermediate piece of punctuation has leapt from its place in linguistics to make a cameo appearance in not one, but two Broadway shows, is surely a sign that things are currently very right, and very write, on the Great White Way.  Continue reading...

On the Sunday morning of Hurricane Irene, I sat in a long line of folding chairs set up in a barn-like rehearsal hall at the Peterborough Players, a fine summer theater deep in the New Hampshire woods. Before me, an eager troupe of actors and musicians, still in sweatshirts and blue jeans, worked their way through Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, their first full run-through before an invited audience.  Continue reading...

While English teachers are notorious for teaching the plot curve and its inciting incident, rising action and climax, etc., and while this is a great way to analyze literature, one of my most interesting sets of lessons involves leaving the plot curve behind and replacing it with the three-act structure most screenwriters and novelists use today.  Continue reading...

Storytelling and blogging have become kindred spirits. Masters of the art of the story are shaping their voices in a new online medium.

Voice--A Storyteller's Lifestyle

Professional Storyteller

Storytelling Notes

A Storied Career

These blogs focus on all things related to the short story genre. Hey, if Nathanial Hawthorne, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway cut their teeth on short stories, why can't you?

I Read a Short Story Today

The Short Story Website

Luna Park

Five Chapters

Sparrow, a pundit poet from Phoenicia, New York, graciously contributed the following column.

People who love gourmet food are called "foodies" (perhaps derived from "hippies," referring to people who love hipness.) What about people who love books?

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