See my recommendation of Beth’s essay and link to her essay here. “How to Make More Room” by Beth Cranwell Aplin in The Rumpus, blurbed by me in Vela.

Linda Meyers (Manhattan) just received word that her essay will be published in Post Road Magazine. “The Spring Line” is a piece Meyers wrote and revised while working with me during a two-week Lexi retreat: “Write & Play in Carmel-by-the-Sea.” She did way more writing than playing, and as a result, has a killer memoir well underway. “The Spring Line” is one part of that. Congratulations, Linda!  I could not be happier for you!

Binghamton University’s John Gardner Fiction Award Finalists for 2015 (in alphabetical order):

Ishmael Beah, Radiance of Tomorrow (Sarah Crichton Books)

Melanie Bishop, My So-Called Ruined Life (Torrey House Press)

Matthew Thomas, We Are Not Ourselves (Simon & Schuster)

Marilynne Robinson, Lila (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

See info on winner Natalie S. Harnett here. Her winning book is The Hollow Ground.