KISS Rules: Balancing Vigilance, Work & Life

I write novels. Stories. I’m not a journalist.I work at separating my writing life and political views. But, having grown up with stories of the Holocaust, with family who left (were chased from) Germany and Romania because of politics, I know that there are times when art and life collide. We are all children of … Read more

Tethered: A novel by Amy Mackinnon

Death is the last frontier in so many ways. In my circles, even friends who talk about sex, politics, and that most forbidden of topics, paychecks, rarely talk about the nitty gritty of death. That’s something we save for our own private hells or heavens. “I plunge my finger between the folds of the incision, … Read more

Behind One Writer’s Group Curtain (at The Boston Book Festival)

                                    How does a writer, working alone, manage isolation? The initial spark of a novel and putting words to paper is a solitary thing—but even introverted authors need a band of brothers or sisters. Come hear the secrets of … Read more

Not Our Shame

With every listen, the Trump sex assault tape sounds worse. Every syllable engenders feelings of being small and wretched and humiliated. I search for the genesis of these emotions, for the source of my desire to curl up into an invisible ball. And the truths wash in: The time my neighbor’s boyfriend covered my six-year-old … Read more

Massachusetts Book Award!

  The Massachusetts Center for the Book has chosen Accidents of Marriage  as a “Must Read” book for 2015! It’s in wonderful company–you can see the full list for the fiction category here. Along with the other books on the list, Accidents of Marriage is  shortlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, which recognizes “compelling works of Massachusetts fiction, nonfiction, … Read more