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Lying in a memoir is just plain lying
My rule is extreme and increasingly unpopular. I say everything in non-fiction should be true. You don’t get to make ...
How to record your elders’ stories before it’s too late
Hands of Mr. Henry Brooks. Library of Congress. Generations pass on funny stories and family myths without really trying. That’s ...
Bill McKibben, social progress, and the empty church
In this dark time for our country, we could use the progressive, unifying influence of the mainline Protestant churches, which ...
Please, please don’t use ‘experience’ as a verb
Richard Nixon, frequent mangler of English I’m OK with anything you do with the English language that makes it more ...
Mark Rowland’s legacy of stories well told
Judge Mark Rowland, 1937-2024 The death two weeks ago of my father-in-law, Mark Rowland, got me thinking about where writing ...
How tiny details spawned a TV doppelganger
Actor Jeff Perry performing in the ABC series "Alaska Daily" It was a weird feeling to have my former boss ...
Paywalls are necessary, and they’re killing democracy
A local news site paywall notice For all the attention paid to keeping traditional media alive, not much has been ...
The mind-meld of a great idea
The cover of How Covid Crashed the System Dr. David Nash and I had thought Covid had killed our book ...
Charles Wohlforth has written many of his own books, has ghost-written others, and helps many writers find their own way into print. Learn how to work with Charles.