"Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused - in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened - by the recurrence of Christmas." ~ Charles Dickens

Beautiful essay Thank you to everyone who supports other creatives: brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/h.... #brevityblog @dintywmoore.bsky.social

"You have the power to change your writer’s life, and with the holidays coming, the time is now. Your gift list couldn’t be easier." ~ @heidicroot.bsky.social / Heidi Croot brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/h...

"Although you’ve got plenty of facts, some must stay in the drawer. The best add sparkle to the narrative to embellish the characters’ world and actions." ~ Andrea Eschen brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/f...

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

“Collect and squirrel away in your soul certain odd moments when the Mystery winks at you.” ~ Denis Johnson

"After the longest night, tomorrow we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished" - Dacha Avelin

"There’s something intangible and irreplicable about the impact of meeting friends in their home spaces and in mine. But at the same time, on the Blog, somewhat magically, the virtual space makes the distances disappear." ~ @andreafirth.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/19/p...

"If the world is torn to pieces, I want to see what story I can find in fragmentation." ~ Terry Tempest-Williams

Something more meaningful than mugs - a fresh and wise take on Christmas gifts for writers. @allisonkwilliams.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/18/g... #writingcommunity #Christmas2025 #writinglife #authorlife #skywriters

"Writing a book is like telling a joke and having to wait two years to know whether or not it is funny." ~ Alain de Botton

When our online digital lives require so much of us, when do we get time for our books? @danalaq.bsky.social @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/d... #writinglife #authorlife #creativewriting #publishing

"Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them." ~ John Steinbeck

FWIW, I highly recommend both @dintywmoore.bsky.social and @chillsubs.bsky.social ! #WritingCommunity

Thanks and double thanks to @chillsubs.bsky.social for listing Brevity Literary Magazine as #4 in the "damn good reads" category--chosen by readers, so a triple thanks to those fine people as well! www.chillsubs.com/lists/a-damn...

"A writer who knows what he's doing doesn't know very much." ~ Nelson Algren

"The most important thing is that you be a good person and you live by the golden rule of do unto others. If you live by that, that's all I care about." ~ Rob Reiner

Want to pay my respects to this incredible story by Heather Kindree Thomas. It lures you in, upends you and breaks your heart. Masterful story in Brevity @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevitymag.com/current-issu... brevitymag.com/current-issu...

When two memoirists discover they have the same story @sarahcanney & @annarollins.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/12/o... #writingcommunity #publishing #memoir #writinglife

"Isn’t it wonderful the way the world holds both the deeply serious, and the unexpectedly mirthful?" ~ Mary Oliver

“To know your history is to carry all your pieces, whole and shattered, through the wilderness. And feel their weight.” ⁦~ Sabrina Orah Mark

How to write the opening scene of your memoir (because it ISN'T 'I was born...'). @HeatherSellers @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/09/m... #writingcommunity #storytelling #writinglife #authorlife

"If you ever want to finish a book (or an album) (or that art project sitting in your garage), you must be unafraid of the thoughts that come to your mind. Especially the fleeting ones that you dismiss as too dull, not worth writing down." ~ KB Brookins brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/10/s...

Many thanks to @dintywmoore.bsky.social for nominating my essay “Mystery House” (which also appears in my new flash collection ABBREVIATE) for a Pushcart Prize! brevitymag.com/nonfiction/m...

"One of the reasons that I write is because I'm more interested in looking, as opposed to looking away." ~ Terry McMillan

This Evening: Virtual Reading to raise funds to support the emergency response rooms in Sudan. Readers include Jericho Brown, Safia Elhillo, Lameese Badr, Natalie Shapero, Martha Collins, David Baker, Ladan Osman & more. @sarahgreenpoet.bsky.social huskiesconnect.stcloudstate.edu/event/11892897

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." ~ John Lennon

Two Brevity essays have been listed among the "Notable Essays & Literary Nonfiction of 2024" in The Best American Essays 2025. Enthusiastic congratulations to @dianaruzova.bsky.social ["The Sauna"] and @dianezinna.bsky.social   ["Astonish"]. Links below.

Virtual Reading on Monday 12/8/2025: Help raise funds to support the emergency response rooms in Sudan. Readers include Jericho Brown, Safia Elhillo, Lameese Badr, Natalie Shapero, Martha Collins, David Baker, Sandra Lim, Katie Peterson, and Ladan Osman. brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/06/r...

Piecing together a story that is hardly remembered - the facts and the emotional crusade of a medical memoir. Mel Williams at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/05/t... #writingcommunity #cnf #memoir #skywriters

"I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it." ~ Joan Didion

3! More! Days! For you guys to share with us all the people and publications (like @dintywmoore.bsky.social) who remind you what this whole writing thing's all about. Vote for our 2025 Best Lit Mag Awards here: www.chillsubs.com/best-lit-mag...

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." ~ Arthur Ashe

Why questions and mysteries are the way to understanding - @katnuernberger.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/e... #writingcommunity #creativewriting #cnf

"I’d love to share a writing exercise I learned from a scientist I consulted with often while writing Held. This is an exercise a biology teacher once gave her, and she now gives her students." Kathryn shares a reading exercise that I will try today (even though it is -11 C today 🥶 )

"Sometimes things hurt in a way that we don’t really have words for ... But somehow I can tell you about looking at a cicada and you’ll understand the really important parts of what I mean." ~ @katnuernberger.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/e...

One of the wonders of social media is being able to share our work. But are we forgetting to give back to those whose work inspires us? Lovely reminder by @AndreaAFirth @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/11/26/a... #writinglife #writingcommunity #creativewriting #skywriters

"I'm gonna get through this world, I'm gonna work in this world, I'm gonna walk in this world, I am gonna talk in this world, I'm gonna clean up this world, I'm gonna leave this world behind, the best I can." ~ Woody Guthrie

Vote for your favorites today. (Subliminal message: Vote for The Brevity Blog) With much love to @chillsubs.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/v...

"I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little ..." ~ Tom Stoppard

"it is in the shelter of each other that the people live" ~ Pádraig Ó Tuama

Is an MFA (or other creative writing qualification) necessary for you to have a writing career? Sensible discussion by @allisonkwilliams.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/11/20/i... #writingcommunity #creativewriting #authorlife #writinglife #skywriters

A sincere thank you to our readers, our writers, and our dedicated staff of editors. brevity.wordpress.com/2025/11/27/t...

“If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family.” ~ Ram Dass.

Let's compare life-writing to ... making Peking duck without an army of assistant chefs. The intrepid @allisonkwilliams.bsky.social at @dintywmoore.bsky.social brevity.wordpress.com/2025/11/25/r... #writingcommunity #writingprocess #memoir #authorlife

"Given the initial talent … writing is largely a matter of application and hard work, of writing and rewriting endlessly, until you are satisfied that you have said what you want to say as clearly and simply as possible." ~ Ann Carson

The 'rich currents' of poetry running alongside our lives... and how to swim in them @dintywmoore.bsky.social & @RodgerKamenetz brevity.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/s... #writingcommunity #cnf #writingprocess #amwriting #skywriters

The creative resource of memory and dreams On the Brevity blog an interview with Dinty Moore with some prompts and tips for nonfiction writers and poets. bit.ly/SITLOTBrevity

"We’re all in line to get on that bus but few of us know when." ~ Charles Coe

"Without craft, art remains private. Without art, craft is merely homework." ~ Joyce Carol Oates