Meredith Sue Willis Author and Teacher Information

Meredith Sue Willis
Author and Teacher

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Today is

Special offer-- Buy Featured Book,
get your whole order at discount!

(Click for Meredith Sue Willis's upcoming appearances,
classes, and publications. For recent
news about MSW, click here)

Click here for Meredith Sue Willis's Resumé

Novels and Stories for Adults
by Meredith Sue Willis

(Click on image to learn more about the book)

.

Books for Children and About Writing:

News

(Click for upcoming appearances and classes)

MSW read a scene from Trespassers at the '68-'08 event at Altshul Auditorium at Columbia University t on Saturday April 26, 2008. This was part of a four day remembrance and discussion of the Columbia student strikes of 1968 in which she participated. See her novel Trespassers.

MSW read from Oradell at Sea and led a discussion at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling, West Virginia on March 4, 2008. See article.

MSW read "What I Learned in First Grade" at the Associated Writng Programs Conference on February 1, 2008, part of a collection on schooling and education called After the Bell: Contemporary American Prose ab out School , edited by Maggie Anderson and David Hassler.

MSW has a review of Blood Kin, by Mark Powell, in the current issue of Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine ( Volume 23, Number 2).

MSW was "Villager of the Month" in her town of South Orange, New Jersey for November 2007.

MSW taught the nonfiction workshop at the 30th Annual Appalachian Writers Workshop at Hindman, Kentucky, July 29 - August 3, 2007.

Billie of Fish House Lane was the Two Towns One Book Children's Book for Maplewood and South Orange, New Jeresy. Events took place Thursday, July12 and Tuesday, July 17, 2007. (See a review of the book here.

MSW's Article on on Beginning Your Novel Step-by-Step appeared in the July issue of The Writer .

Meet the Author, a Local Access t.v. program (Channel 19 South Orange, Channel 35 Maplewood) featured MSW in spring 2007.

MSW received the Sal Santaniello Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Ethical Society of Essex County on May 19, 2007. This is an award for "indefatigable service to the Ethical Culture Movement and the advancement of world justice." Click here for pictures.

MSW and Alice Robinson-Gilman presented a program at the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County on April 15, 2007 called Books That Moved Us.

Story "Triangulation" in the Winter 2006-2007 issue of the Saranac Review.

Article from Appalachian Heritage by Phyllis Wilson Moore about MSW. (You need Acrobat reader to read this. Free download at Adobe Acrobat Reader . More on this issue.

Meredith Sue Willis gave her lecture on "Ethics and Writing for Children" at the South Orange Public Library November 16, 2006.

MSW, Jeff Mann, Crystal Wilkinson preparing to read
at Berea College

On Friday, November 10, 2006, MSW read with Crystal Wilkinson and Jeff Mann at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, for the Appalachian Heritage' First Featured Writers Reading.

The Fall 2006 issue of Appalachian Heritage featured MSW (a story and an essay) as well as a biographical essay by Phyllis Wilson Moore; a reappraisal of her 1981 novel HIGHER GROUND by Keith Maillard; and a personal essay about how we grew up by my oldest friend, West Virginia University President David C. Hardesty. For information on getting a copy, go to Appalachian Heritage.

MSW taught "Beginning Your Novel" at the 2006 Writers Conference at Penn October 14, 2006 at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. In its 12th year the Writers Conference at Penn includes over 80 workshops and 300 attendees with topics ranging widely within fiction, non fiction, publishing and professional services. For information about next year's conference, visit www.pennwritersconference.org .

MSW was part of the splendid Twenty Fifth Appalachian Writers' Festival at  Emory & Henry College September 21 - 23 , 2006. See blog entries too.

MSW read with poets Iris N. Schwartz and Madeline Artenberg on June 27, 2006 at the Clement Soto Velez Cultural Center on Suffolk Street in NYC.

On Saturday, May 13, 2006, MSW gave a reading from her latest book for children, Billie of Fish House Lane , to children and adults at The Goat Café in South Orange, New Jersey.

MSW Reading at
The Goat in South Orange, NJ

April 9, 2006 Sunday: Ethical Culture Society of Essex County Sunday morning platform-- MSW and Alice Robinson-Gilman lead a member platform. 11:00 AM, 516 Prospect Street, Maplewood, New Jersey.

April 5, 2006, MSW read her short story "Tales of the Abstract Expressionist" (online and in Dwight's House and Other Stories) to students and professors at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey.

MSW gave the platform at the Essex Ethical Culture Society on Sunday, February 19-- on writing for children by reading what children write.

Billie of Fish House Lane was a finalist in the Foreword Magazaine Book of the Year Awards. Billie Lee, who narrates her own story, is, says the publisher, "smart and sassy." She's eleven, part of a mixed race family. The book is for kids 8 - 12.

There is an interview by Nathan Leslie of Meredith Sue Willis in the Spring 2006 Main Street Rag magazine.

Meredith Sue Willis sends out an occasional newsletter with commentary on old, new, and rediscovered books called Books For Readers. To get the free newsletter, send a blank email to  Readerbooks-subscribe@topica.com   To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Readerbooks-unsubscribe@topica.com. You may also read the newsletter online at Books For Readers.

For reviews of recent MSW books, go to her book page. For a review of MSW's recent short story collection Dwight's House and Other Stories, click here.   Another review from the American Book Review can be read here.

See MSW's article about activist poet Don West at The Ethical Review of Books.

Information about Literature, Writing, and Writers

Selection from Carole Rosenthal's Memoir: CLOSE FINISHES.

Images of Grace Paley. See her obituary. A life of
literature and anti-war activism.

Tillie Olsen , a great working class voice, died on January 3, 2007. William Styron died November 1, 2006. He is one of the last of that generation of epic novelists. For other writers who have died recently, click here as well as some of my favorites from long ago.

Check out Duotrope.com/ , an often-updated service listing markets by category.The Rutgers-Newark Master of Fine Arts Program is now accepting applications in Fiction, Nonfiction or Poetry. See their website at http://www.mfa.newark.rutgers.edu/index.htm).
Faculty include Jayne Anne Phillips, Rigoberto Gonzalez, and Tayari Jones.

Check out these writers' WebsitesSite for learning about legitimate poetry contests at Winning Writers. Click here to learn about some not-so-legitimate ones--Winning Writers also has a contests-to-avoid page.Deadlines for writing contests at Poets & Writers.

If you don't have a web presence yet, you really ought to. To get your feet wet, you might try one of the free (meaning with ads) webpages at places like Geocities Yahoo. Click here to see one that I set up in about 5 minutes. I don't like it, but it is REALLY quick and REALLY easy to do. If you can fill in info and buy stuff on the web, you can do this. Also consider buying the domain name with your name--thus, I own .meredithsuewillis.com. You can get these at several places, including www.domainbank.com .

Articles and more:

Excellent piece by Suzanne McConnell
on Kurt Vonnegut as a teacher.

Article about digital versus conventional publishing.

Article by David Weinberger about publishing with Lulu.com.

Video of David Weinberger explaining the Internet to the Germans!

New York Times Article on E-mail behavior

Poem by Phyllis Moore

Support  small presses and the future of literature!

Bookworm Magazine -- For the Young Writers in your life

Notes on some of my favorite writers

Writing Hints

Places That Publish Writing by Teens

Writing Exercises for Kids!

Calendar of readings in New York City at http://www.poetz.com/calendar/index.htm

The Ethical Culture Review of Books

A teacher named Jeanette Stricklen has a piece on Ron Pramschufer's website “Writers—Beware of Subsidy Publishers, Vanity Publishers, and Poetry Websites ." It’s an interesting personal experience, straightforward, although at the end Ms. Stricklen does give a plug to Mr. Pramshufer’s business, Self-Publishing.com . She seems to feel that iUniverse and Authorhouse and the others pretend to be publishers while Mr. P. represents honest old fashioned self-publishing. This may simply be her increasing sophistication. At any rate, it’s worth taking a look at.

A selection of Norman Julian's "The Writing Life" columns from the Morgantown Dominion-Post. Also, see his on Homer Hickam on Mountainlit.

Review of Keith Maillard's tetralogy.

October poem by Barbara Crooker

Latest issue of The Hamilton Stone Review

Adam Sexton's excellent book MASTER CLASS IN FICTION WRITING: LESSONS FROM AUSTEN, HEMINGWAY AND OTHERS is now available.You can find it at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

A Book I'm very excited about.: Forever After about teachers and teaching after 9/11. Click here.

MSW's Fiction Online

"1969," in Salt River River

"Big Boss is Back" online at Appalachian Heritage, Danny Platner award.

Oradell at Sea, Chapter 3 in Big City Lit

Oradell at Sea, Chapter 9 in Big City Lit

Dwight's House excerpt at Hamilton Stone Review

"Elvissa Did Not Become a Rabbi," in Kimera.

"Evenings With Dotson", short story from In the Mountains of America.

Higher Ground, excerpt.

"How She Chose the Day," in BigCityLit

"My Boy Elroy" short story from In the Mountains of America.

Only Great Changes, excerpt.

"Recessional " at Coelacanth Online Magazine, Fall 2003

"Scheherezade and Dunzyad," April 2005 issue of The Pedestal Magazine

"Tales of the Abstract Expressionists" at Tatlin's Tower.

"The Two Lindas," The Chaffin Journal', 2001 Fiction award.

"Triangulation," from The Saranac Review

Trespassers, excerpt.

MSW's Nonfiction Online:

Lessons to use in the classroom with children.

Online article for writers On Cutting.

Article about writing dialogue called Dialogue: The Spine of Fiction.

Book reviews

Notes on books and reading atBooks For Readers. To subscribe, click here

Places to go and things to do:

Some of Meredith Sue Willis's Favorite Writers and Other Activists

Interesting and humorous insights into the 'Web: The Journal of Hyperlinked Organization

Reviews with an ethical perspective: The Ethical Culture Review of Books

MSW Upcoming Appearances,Classes, Etc.

She has an article in the current, 40th anniversary issue, of Teachers & Writers Magazine: "I'm Still a Writer-in-the-Schools."

MSW will speak at the Sunday morning platform of the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County on May 11, 2008

MSW will be teaching Advanced Novel Workshop at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies starting May 21 through July 9, 2008.

MSW is a presenter at the North Wildwood Beach Writers Conference, June 4-5, 2008.

Her one-day workshop at NYU SCPS, "Jump Start Your Novel" will take place Saturday, June 7, 2008. See catalog.

Private online writing class "Summer Stories" starts July 7. For information, click here.

Featured Book

If you order this month's featured book by direct mail, you may take 10% off your total order, excluding shipping & handling and tax. Order from the Order-by-Mail page.

Trespassers

A novel set during the student strikes and
sit-ins at Columbia University in 1968...

"With the same attention to detail she brought to her character's small town childhood, Willis brings the people, ambiance and events of the urban experience out of the past and into a fresh light 30 years later. The silky locution that springs from the Appalachian heritage of storytelling is fully empowered here. Critics agree: Others have written of the same era, but few write as well."
-- Claudia Ebeling in Bucknell World

Trespassers, the final volume in Meredith Sue Willis's luminous Blair Morgan trilogy, brings its West Virginia-born heroine to the brink of adulthood and to the epicenter of her generations' rage. it is 1967, and 20-something Blair is off to New York City to begin life on her own....The novel is different in tone than the earlier books of the trilogy, in which it was possible to detect the cadence of West Virginia (right down to Blair being called Blair Ellen by those who knew her then). This book is blunter, with more dialogue. There's no mistaking New York.

-- Carol Herman in The Washington Times

Willis demolishes dreaded Appalachian female stereotypes....Blair Ellen is a particular girl, to be sure, from a particular region of the country, which itself represents the reforming spirit of the turbulent ‛60's, but her aspirations and experiences in social action speak to a collective, inclusive identity which makes her a representative of her generation, not her region.

— Gina Herring, Appalachian Journal, Volume 25, Number 4, Summer 1998.

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Biography Blog Books for Readers Contact Home Kids MSW Info MSW's Books Online Classes Order Books MSW Online Resources for Writers Teens Workshops Writing Exercises

Best All Around Resources for Writers: New Pages

Send Mail to MSW

New Book for Kids Billie of Fish House Lane From Montemayor Press Read a chapter: Click on Catalogue, Literature for Children

A literary Map of West Virginia!

Writers' Links & Resources Resources for writers Poetry Daily Writers Almanac How Artists Get Paid Int. Women's Writing Guild New Publishing Paradigm Resources for writers Thunderburst Edwards Bros. Printers

Here's a webpage at Yahoo that I set up in about 5 minutes. It has ads, but it is REALLY quick and REALLY easy to do.

Writing by MSW Online Fiction Online Nonfiction Article on Revision Article on Dialogue Getting Published Reviews Books Adult Fiction Books for Children Books on Writing Free Newsletter for Readers

FamilyOriented Websites Ellen Kahaner's Mural class Reading and Traveling with Kids

More Jeremy Osner

Photos and Art Some great graphics? http://ann-s-thesia.com/

Visual Artists's Websites Charlie Cowger Ann Olson Rochelle Ratner Duane Smith Ella Yang

Brooklyn by Ella Yang

Music& Mixed Media Websites Peter Sciaino Deep Listening

Blogs The Compulsive Reader National Book Critics Circle Claudia Carlson Sherry Chandler Fred First Cat Pleska Valerie Nieman Dee Rimbaud Larissa Shmailo Christopher Vera David Weinberger Lisa WIlliams Loho (Group Blog about the Lower East Side) Brooklyn Parrots Blog!

More Links

Meredith Sue Willis Author and Teacher

Special offer-- Buy Featured Book, get your whole order at discount!

(Click for Meredith Sue Willis's upcoming appearances, classes, and publications. For recent news about MSW, click here)

Click here for Meredith Sue Willis's Resumé

Novels and Stories for Adults by Meredith Sue Willis

Books for Children and About Writing:

(Click for upcoming appearances and classes)

MSW read a scene from Trespassers at the '68-'08 event at Altshul Auditorium at Columbia University t on Saturday April 26, 2008. This was part of a four day remembrance and discussion of the Columbia student strikes of 1968 in which she participated. See her novel Trespassers.

MSW read from Oradell at Sea and led a discussion at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling, West Virginia on March 4, 2008. See article.

MSW read "What I Learned in First Grade" at the Associated Writng Programs Conference on February 1, 2008, part of a collection on schooling and education called After the Bell: Contemporary American Prose about School , edited by Maggie Anderson and David Hassler.

MSW has a review of Blood Kin, by Mark Powell, in the current issue of Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine ( Volume 23, Number 2).

MSW was "Villager of the Month" in her town of South Orange, New Jersey for November 2007.

MSW taught the nonfiction workshop at the 30th Annual Appalachian Writers Workshop at Hindman, Kentucky, July 29 - August 3, 2007.

Billie of Fish House Lane was the Two Towns One Book Children's Book for Maplewood and South Orange, New Jeresy. Events took place Thursday, July12 and Tuesday, July 17, 2007. (See a review of the book here.

MSW's Article on on Beginning Your Novel Step-by-Step appeared in the July issue of The Writer .

Meet the Author, a Local Access t.v. program (Channel 19 South Orange, Channel 35 Maplewood) featured MSW in spring 2007.

MSW received the Sal Santaniello Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Ethical Society of Essex County on May 19, 2007. This is an award for "indefatigable service to the Ethical Culture Movement and the advancement of world justice." Click here for pictures.

MSW and Alice Robinson-Gilman presented a program at the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County on April 15, 2007 called Books That Moved Us.

Story "Triangulation" in the Winter 2006-2007 issue of the Saranac Review.

Article from Appalachian Heritage by Phyllis Wilson Moore about MSW. (You need Acrobat reader to read this. Free download at Adobe Acrobat Reader . More on this issue.

Meredith Sue Willis gave her lecture on "Ethics and Writing for Children" at the South Orange Public Library November 16, 2006.

MSW, Jeff Mann, Crystal Wilkinson preparing to read at Berea College

On Friday, November 10, 2006, MSW read with Crystal Wilkinson and Jeff Mann at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, for the Appalachian Heritage' First Featured Writers Reading.

MSW was part of the splendid Twenty Fifth Appalachian Writers' Festival at Emory & Henry College September 21 - 23 , 2006. See blog entries too.

MSW read with poets Iris N. Schwartz and Madeline Artenberg on June 27, 2006 at the Clement Soto Velez Cultural Center on Suffolk Street in NYC.

On Saturday, May 13, 2006, MSW gave a reading from her latest book for children, Billie of Fish House Lane , to children and adults at The Goat Café in South Orange, New Jersey.

MSW Reading at The Goat in South Orange, NJ

April 9, 2006 Sunday: Ethical Culture Society of Essex County Sunday morning platform-- MSW and Alice Robinson-Gilman lead a member platform. 11:00 AM, 516 Prospect Street, Maplewood, New Jersey.

April 5, 2006, MSW read her short story "Tales of the Abstract Expressionist" (online and in Dwight's House and Other Stories) to students and professors at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey.

MSW gave the platform at the Essex Ethical Culture Society on Sunday, February 19-- on writing for children by reading what children write.

Billie of Fish House Lane was a finalist in the Foreword Magazaine Book of the Year Awards. Billie Lee, who narrates her own story, is, says the publisher, "smart and sassy." She's eleven, part of a mixed race family. The book is for kids 8 - 12.

There is an interview by Nathan Leslie of Meredith Sue Willis in the Spring 2006 Main Street Rag magazine.

For reviews of recent MSW books, go to her book page. For a review of MSW's recent short story collection Dwight's House and Other Stories, click here. Another review from the American Book Review can be read here.

See MSW's article about activist poet Don West at The Ethical Review of Books.

Information about Literature, Writing, and Writers

Selection from Carole Rosenthal's Memoir: CLOSE FINISHES.

Images of Grace Paley. See her obituary. A life of literature and anti-war activism.

Tillie Olsen , a great working class voice, died on January 3, 2007. William Styron died November 1, 2006. He is one of the last of that generation of epic novelists. For other writers who have died recently, click here as well as some of my favorites from long ago.

Check out these writers' WebsitesSite for learning about legitimate poetry contests at Winning Writers. Click here to learn about some not-so-legitimate ones--Winning Writers also has a contests-to-avoid page.Deadlines for writing contests at Poets & Writers.

Articles and more:

Excellent piece by Suzanne McConnell on Kurt Vonnegut as a teacher.

Article about digital versus conventional publishing.

Article by David Weinberger about publishing with Lulu.com.

Video of David Weinberger explaining the Internet to the Germans!

New York Times Article on E-mail behavior

Poem by Phyllis Moore

Support small presses and the future of literature!

Bookworm Magazine -- For the Young Writers in your life

Notes on some of my favorite writers

Writing Hints

Places That Publish Writing by Teens

Writing Exercises for Kids!

Calendar of readings in New York City at http://www.poetz.com/calendar/index.htm

A selection of Norman Julian's "The Writing Life" columns from the Morgantown Dominion-Post. Also, see his on Homer Hickam on Mountainlit.

Review of Keith Maillard's tetralogy.

October poem by Barbara Crooker

Latest issue of The Hamilton Stone Review

Adam Sexton's excellent book MASTER CLASS IN FICTION WRITING: LESSONS FROM AUSTEN, HEMINGWAY AND OTHERS is now available.You can find it at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

A Book I'm very excited about.: Forever After about teachers and teaching after 9/11. Click here.

MSW's Fiction Online

"1969," in Salt River River

"Big Boss is Back" online at Appalachian Heritage, Danny Platner award.

Oradell at Sea, Chapter 3 in Big City Lit

Oradell at Sea, Chapter 9 in Big City Lit

Dwight's House excerpt at Hamilton Stone Review

New Book for Kids
Billie of Fish House Lane
From Montemayor Press
Read a chapter:
Click on Catalogue,
Literature for Children

A literary Map of
West Virginia!

Writers' Links
& Resources
Resources for writers
Poetry Daily
Writers Almanac
How Artists Get Paid
Int. Women's Writing Guild
New Publishing Paradigm
Resources for writers
Thunderburst
Edwards Bros. Printers

Writing by MSW
Online Fiction
Online Nonfiction
Article on Revision
Article on Dialogue
Getting Published
Reviews
Books
Adult Fiction
Books for Children
Books on Writing
Free Newsletter
for Readers

FamilyOriented Websites
Ellen Kahaner's Mural class
Reading and Traveling with Kids

More
Jeremy Osner

Photos and Art
Some great graphics?
http://ann-s-thesia.com/

Visual Artists's Websites
Charlie Cowger
Ann Olson
Rochelle Ratner
Duane Smith
Ella Yang

Music& Mixed Media Websites
Peter Sciaino
Deep Listening

Blogs
The Compulsive Reader
National Book Critics Circle Claudia Carlson
Sherry Chandler
Fred First
Cat Pleska
Valerie Nieman
Dee Rimbaud
Larissa Shmailo
Christopher Vera
David Weinberger
Lisa WIlliams
Loho (Group Blog about the Lower East Side)
Brooklyn Parrots Blog!

Meredith Sue Willis
Author and Teacher

Special offer-- Buy Featured Book,
get your whole order at discount!

(Click for Meredith Sue Willis's upcoming appearances,
classes, and publications. For recent
news about MSW, click here)

Novels and Stories for Adults
by Meredith Sue Willis

MSW read "What I Learned in First Grade" at the Associated Writng Programs Conference on February 1, 2008, part of a collection on schooling and education called After the Bell: Contemporary American Prose ab out School , edited by Maggie Anderson and David Hassler.

MSW, Jeff Mann, Crystal Wilkinson preparing to read
at Berea College

MSW Reading at
The Goat in South Orange, NJ

Images of Grace Paley. See her obituary. A life of
literature and anti-war activism.

Excellent piece by Suzanne McConnell
on Kurt Vonnegut as a teacher.

MSW will be teaching Advanced Novel Workshop at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies starting May 21 through July 9, 2008.

MSW is a presenter at the North Wildwood Beach Writers Conference, June 4-5, 2008.

A novel set during the student strikes and
sit-ins at Columbia University in 1968...