In 2016, Sean Padraic McCarthy won a Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction. As he gets ready to publish his debut novel, In the Midst of the Sea on May 1, 2019, we asked him about his new book, the difficult balance of work+life+art, and what's next in his intriguing trajectory as a literary artist. What came first for In the Midst of the … [Read more...]
Tracy Strauss: I Just Haven’t Met You Yet
Writer Tracy Strauss is about to publish her debut book, I Just Haven't Met You Yet (Skyhorse Publishing, May 2019), an "open love letter" to her future life partner. It's a memoir about relationships, reckoning with abuse, and finding a way to seen and understood. The book - and its journey to publication - is also a remarkable story of persistence and commitment as an … [Read more...]
Susan Bernhard on Her Debut Novel Winter Loon
In 2014, Susan Bernhard submitted a 23-page section from her novel-in-progress Winter Loon for the Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction. In May of that year, she learned she was one of the eight prose writers who had received a $10,000 grant. Now, four and a half years later, she's just published Winter Loon, which was an Amazon First Reads … [Read more...]
January Gill O’Neil: Rewilding
January Gill O'Neil (Poetry Finalist '18) will publish her third collection of poetry, Rewilding, with CavanKerry Press in November 2018. We asked the poet about the significance of the book's title, her influences and choices as a poet, and what's next in her intriguing journey as a literary artist. How did you come to select Rewilding as the title of your third … [Read more...]
Creative Minds Discuss the Boston Literary District
Have you listened to Mass Cultural Council's Creative Minds Out Loud podcast lately? The most recent Creative Minds Out Loud podcast features a discussion of local literary history (as well as its contemporary vitality) by way of the Boston Literary District. Wheatley, Emerson, Alcott, Hawthorne: so many poets and writers who have shaped the country's literary heritage have … [Read more...]