Story Street’s Favorite Books of 2025
A look back at some of our favorite books that helped us through 2025.
Helping Writers “Keep the Magic Flowing,” an Interview with Productivity Coach Kristina Chilian
by Michele Alouf
Some of my writing friends and I have formed a weekly “therapy” group where we discuss our accomplishments (or lack thereof) during the previous week, craft strategies, creative struggles, and goals for the week ahead. A recurring theme is productivity—how we get stuck, deal with distractions, keep motivated, stay organized, and find ways to write forward.…
A World of Connection Close to Home: My Experience at the 23rd Annual James River Writers Conference
In July, my fellow Story Street Writer, Margaret Speck Ogawa, wrote the article, “Get Inspired and Find Your People: Attend a Writers Conference.” After reading about her enriching experiences at events across the country, I decided to try a conference but stay in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia.…
Books to bind the broken-hearted: the poetic elevation of Moby-Dick
I expect many of us aspiring writers find ourselves in this boat, and now we’re floating out in the sea in the middle of the night, hoping for a reminder why we do this – why we love words in the first place.
Moby-Dick has arrived as my heroic reminder.
SSW Interview of Our Summertime Sadness 100-Word Story Contest Winner
With our Nightmare on Story Street contest announcement today, we thought this would be a good time to publish our interview with Jessica Wooton, the winner of our Summertime Sadness 100-Word Story Contest.
Her story “Slate (Clean)” is a remarkably tight and punctual work.…
Get Inspired and Find Your People: Attend a Writers Conference
Are you looking to expand your writing life? Your writing community? Your exposure to literary agents, editors, and publishers? Writers conferences can provide all of these potentially life-changing benefits and more.
At writers conferences members of the literary world come together to learn, educate, network, and celebrate the magic of writing.…
Summertime Sadness Contest Results!
Announcing the winners of the Summertime Sadness flash fiction contest on Story Street! Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the wonderful submissions!
Reframing Rejection: Giving Your Tired Hang-ups Vibrant New Life
When my husband was in his final semester of graduate school, his roommate, Steve, was unsuccessfully searching for a job. At a time when rejections were more formal and arrived on embossed letterhead, Steve decided to decorate his apartment with a collage of dismissals, near misses, and best wishes.…
There’s a New Podcast in Town…
Margaret Speck Ogawa turns the tables and interviews Michael Stubblefield about his new writing podcast, The Epilogue...
A Work in Progress: Year One
Jack Morgan writes an irregular column on learning to write with brain lesions.
It’s been almost a year since I received my primary progressive multiple sclerosis diagnosis, and anyone who read the first few articles in this column knows that I started my stages of grief deep in a dark place.…