Sadly my first book, On that one-way trip to Mars, is now out of print. My publisher Bottlecap Press informed me that they sold the last backstock copy, so that’s a wrap on my voyage to Mars. On that one-way trip to Mars was published in May 2016 and was nominated for an Elgin Award in 2017. I […]
As a new year and new decade looms, I’m reflecting back on the writing and publication success I’ve experienced. I still can’t quite believe that my childhood dreams came true this past decade! As you can see from the photo below, I’ve been dreaming of being a writer for a long time … check out […]
I’m thrilled that TWO of my panels were accepted for the AWP 2019 conference in Portland, Oregon! Dates/times still TBA. So keep on the lookout for more information. Here are my panels/events: The Future is Disabled: A Reading of Disabled Writers on What’s Next (Raymond Luczak, Jess Silfa, Marlena Chertock, and Avery M. Guess) A […]
I am super excited to announce that I’m starting a new phase in my career! After three incredible years, I’m leaving the Society for Science & the Public and joining World Resources Institute next week. After several rounds of interviews and a writing and editing test, I’m so thrilled to be offered this position. I’ll be […]
I nightmare natural disasters. Tidal waves filling up my apartment building, floor by floor. Tornadoes suddenly appearing on the road in front of me. 🌍☀⛈🔥 For years, I’ve been terrified of climate change, global warming, and the effects of natural and manmade disasters. All through journalism school, I read, watched, and learned about devastating earthquakes, […]
I am so excited to let you all know that I got a second panel into the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference! It’s a big deal, and an honor. AWP 2018 will only be my second time attending the conference, so I’m thrilled to be back and spreading awareness of disability, writers with disabilities, […]
I feel like I’ve just come back from a long trip to the future, and returned, and I’m stricken. I finished reading “The Uninhabitable Earth: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think” by David Wallace-Wells in the New York Magazine. This long-form essay on potential futures of climate change is a must-read. […]
This year I served as the initial judge/reader in poetry for the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House Literary Prize contest. Thank you, Johnna Schmidt, for the opportunity. Litfest is an annual literary contest and celebration. At the spring ceremony, awards are given out for the top three poems and short stories, honorable mentions, and the Writers’ House seniors […]
The incredible Taylor Lewis reflects on the power of writers as activists, her experiences teaching abroad in France, going to grad school in Hawaii, and the current political climate in a recent article in The Writers’ Bloc. Back in 2011, at the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House at the University of Maryland, Taylor had the great idea to […]
Wow. AWP is over. I am exhausted, and sick (who gave me this cold?!), and heartened by the writing community I’m a part of. This was my first AWP, and it is just as massive as it sounds. About 15,000 writers, editors, publishers, university professors, etc. attended. It’s like an entire city converging on D.C. […]
I was recently interviewed in Crack the Spine’s Wordsmith series! They asked me how long I’ve been writing, what my greatest challenge as a writer is, and the best piece of advice on how to stay sane as a writer. Read on to find out more about the main message in my short story in […]
Some 2016 accomplishments I’m proud of: Bottlecap Press published my book On that one-way trip to Mars. More of my disability-themed poetry was published. Thanks The Deaf Poets Society, Noble/Gas Quarterly, The Fem, Wordgathering, Words Dance, and others. I got to talk to so many amazing young scientists and women in STEM for stories with Society […]
The #OwnYourOwn hashtag has taken off this week. It’s a space on Twitter to encourage and inspire marginalized writers. It’s a call to #OwnYourOwn voice, #OwnYourOwn dreams, #OwnYourOwn story. This community is rallying around the #ownvoices hashtag as well, which encourages the telling of stories from diverse groups and members of that group. The hashtag was started by Kaye M., a […]
D.C. science fiction writer Tara Campbell recently wrote an article in the Washington Independent Review of Books encouraging silent writers to go out and read their work! One great way to test if your latest piece is submission-ready, Tara said, is to attend a local reading and actually read your work to others. Audiences at […]
If you’re trying to get your art or writing published in literary magazines, you should really read Lincoln Michel’s Ultimate Guide to getting published on BuzzFeed. Michel is the Editor of Electric Literature. Some of you might be thinking … why BuzzFeed? What does BuzzFeed know about literature? Well, BuzzFeed has been incorporating a lot more literary […]
My poem “Cemetario General” was published in Cacti Fur. I wrote this poem in Chile, while traveling through that beautiful land of friendly people. People in Chile kiss you on both cheeks when they meet you. I went to Chile in 2013 for a winter-term trip through the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House. We visited Santiago, Valparaíso, and […]
On March 29, in a Saturday morning panel at the 2014 Split This Rock poems of provocation and witness poetry festival, the Afghan Women’s Writing Project shared words and curriculum from Afghan women poets with a group of about 25 women and two men in the Human Rights Campaign building. Formed in 2009, AWWP offers […]
Chapter 9: The Classics APRIL 15, 2011 To be a reporter, to be a good reporter, one has to have a passion for the craft of writing. Reporters must have a passion for journalism. Journalism is often a quest for social reform. Good reporters whose writing is powerful report on injustice, corruption, social issues and […]
Marlena Chertock APRIL 13, 2011 Yoram Lubling always wanted to write. His undergraduate major was journalism. But after graduating, he never went back to journalism. “I thought the best way to write was to study what to write about,” he said. “And the best way to do that was to study philosophy.” The Elon philosophy […]
Chapter 8: Terrorism, war and disasters Writing about terrorism, war and disasters is tricky, has to be accurate and on tight deadlines and is difficult to write. It’s hard to witness disaster, but people need information about what happens and the response to it. So reporters must go, witness, observe, interview, research and report. These […]