Nonfiction & Videos by Meredith Sue Willis

Videos of workshops, interviews, etc.
Audio Recordings of MSW
Books
Nonfiction
More Reviews

Meredith Sue Willis's books about writing:
(Click on the image for a description and commentary)

 

Featured:

Video lecture from an online workshop on "The Scene in Prose Narrative."

A print essay from a few years back about my developmentment as a visiting writer, and about the people who began this work in the early 1970's:  "Still a Writer in the Schools"

 

 

MSW videos, workshops, and interviews online

• Audio recording of MSW reading "The Sweetest Man Who Ever Lived," Cold Mountain Review 2023.

• MSW reads from Their Houses at "Lunch with Books" at the Wood County Library in Wheeling, West Virginia: Youtube of presentation here. (October 2019

• An 11 minute video lecture on "The Scene in Prose Narrative." (From a 1-15-22 online workshop).

• Soledad in the Desert Discussion (By the Book) with Tyler Chadwell, Eddy Pendarvis, Donna Meredith, Phyllis Wilson Moore, and MSW. (2020)

• MSW interviewed by Carter Seaton: "Chapters." (2020)

• Youtube talk on revision!  MSW talks about revision on Commaful.com. (June 2020)

• Books in Action: Melissa Kopecky interviews MSW (2019)

• 2018 Libraries Today: West Virginia Library Commission Interview with Meredith Sue Willis

• MSW on her role with South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race: Interview, 2014.

• MSW speaks at Ethical Culture Society on the Political novel January, 2012

• Clarksville Writers Conference summer 2012

• MSW Reading online, Columbia University, 40 years later (April 2008): Part 3, go to 25:56. (2008)

• On Youtube, out of the past: a 1979 WWVU-TV interview of MSW about the publication of her first novel, A Space Apart, by Mary Lucille Deberry.

 

Nonfiction Online by MSW:

• "Separating Process and Product"-- Click on the button that says "Read an Excerpt."

• Author interview at NFReads.com

• Interview at CALA Blog by MSW with her former SPS student Helen Wan.

• An old article by MSW from The Writer with ideas for starting yourf novel: "How to Get a Novel Started.

• Comments on Marc Kaminsky's book of poems A Cleft in the Rock" at "Dos Madres Press."

• MSW piece at the general interest online magazine NFReads.com

• Piece on good use of the omnisicient in Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway on the Write Group Blog.

• Article on becoming part of the anti-war sit-ins at Columbia University in 1968: "Life Story," Columbia University, 1968, Spring 2008.

• Review of Hilton Obenzinger's How We Write

• "Shaping Longer Works of Fiction:" article on teaching middle schoolers to write long stories and novels or see the .pdf file of the article here.

• "Writing Out of the Region,"Appalachian Journal, Volume 18, Number 3, Spring 1991 (University Hall, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608) Here is the article that inspired "Writing Out of the Region:" "Gradual Changes Meredith Sue Willis and the New Appalachian Fiction" by Ken Sullivan.

• Sample Chapter from Blazing Pencils (look for "read an excerpt")

• Review of The Scummers by Lee Maynard, Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine, Winter 2013, Vol. 28, No. 2.

• "7 Layers to Revising Your Novel" from The Writer (November/December 2012, Vol. 125, Issue 11).

• Jump Start Your Novel on Laura Bentley's Open Mic

• "Still a Writer in the Schools"

• Guest blog on In This Light, writing about choosing an image for a book cover.

• What I Learned In First Grade

• Improve Your Fiction With Film Techniques from The Writer April 2010.

• From Ten Strategies to Write Your Novel (look for "read an excerpt")

• "Seduced Into Consciousness: the Art of Jayne Anne Phillips" is available in the Winter 2009 issue of Appalachian Heritage.

• Article on MSW and Sit-ins at Columbia University in 1968.

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

• How to Get a Novel Started from The Writer.

• "The Clam Shell: Opening to Life with Resolute Passion-- Mary Lee Settle's Literary Legacy," Mary Lee Settle issue, Appalachian Heritage, Volume 34, Number 1, Winter 2006, p. 73.

• Writing Dialogue

• Online article for writers On Cutting.

• Lessons  (a series for use in the classroom)

• Luis, A True Story  (A memoir of teaching)

• On William Styron

• Red Rover

• Why Public Schools?

• Review of My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki

• "Writing Out of the Region,"Appalachian Journal, Volume 18, Number 3, Spring 1991 (University Hall, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608)

 

MSW's online newsletter on books and reading is Books For Readers. To subscribe, click here.

 

 

 

More Book Reviews Online by MSW

• David Huddle's Only the Little Bone

• Ruth L. Ozeki My Year of Meats

• Review of Scummers by Lee Maynard, Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2012).

• Michael Chitwood's The Weave Room   

• George Eliot's Felix Holt  

• André Schiffrin's The Business of Books

• Myra Cohn Livingston's Like Grown-ups But Different

• Silas House's Clay's Quilt

• Gretchen Laskas's The Midwife's Tale  

• Alfred Maund's The Big Boxcar    

• Weinberger et alia: The Cluetrain Manifesto 

• Don West's No Lonesome Road

 

Complete List of Nonfiction by MSW, Hard Copy and Online:

For a complete list of MSW's short nonfiction, including pieces appearing in hard copy only, see her resumé, especially anthologies and book introductions and for essays and articles.

 

More Commentary on Books Available in MSW's Free Newsletter about new, old, and rediscovered books. See Books for Readers. You may also have the free newsletter sent to you by emai by sending a blank email to  Readerbooks-subscribe@topica.com. Unsubscribe by sending a blank email to Readerbooks-unsubscribe@topica.com. Back issues of Books for Readers are at Books For Readers.

MSW E-books!

(To buy any of these books as e-books, click on the image. They are also available at the Kindle Store and at the Nook Store as well as the iBook store and other e-book stores.)

 

 

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an imprint of Hamilton Stone Editions. Check us out!

 

 

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The best way to get in touch with Meredith Sue Willis is by email: Meredithsuewillis (symbol for "at") gmail ("dot") com

 

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