Featured Writing

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Sister Act

by Sarah Carleton They ride the East Coast, up, down,hopping from venue to venue like fingers on a fretboard, passenger-seat sister playing mandolinas they sing to mark the miles, their paired tones woven into road-tire roar.On stage they perform the trick of trading instruments for a tune or two to…

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Photo of Tananarive Due, a smiling Black woman with big gold hoop earrings in a leather dress leaning toward the camera and smiling.

Word for Word, Featuring Special Guest Tananarive Due

On Wednesday, April 23, the Word for Word Literary Series welcomed award-winning author Tananarive Due. A leading voice in Black speculative fiction, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award. Her books include The Reformatory (winner of a Los Angeles Times Book…

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Word for Word, Featuring Special Guest Jeffrey Ford

On Wednesday, February 19, the Word for Word Literary Series welcomed award-winning author Jeffrey Ford. He is the author of the novels The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, The Shadow Year, The Twilight Pariah, Ahab’s…

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Word for Word Celebrates SNHU’s Fall Fiction Contest Winners

On Wednesday, January 15, 2025, the Word for Word Reading Series at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) featured the winners of the Penmen Review’s tenth annual Fall Fiction Contest. This year’s contest had more than 750 submissions, from which five winners were chosen: First place, “Train a Comin’,” by N….

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Word for Word, Featuring Special Guest Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

On Wednesday, October 16, the Word for Word Literary Series welcomed award-winning author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. His debut collection, Friday Black, was a New York Times bestseller, won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s…

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Flower on books

Word for Word Spotlights Poets Carla Sameth and Stephanie Wytovich

Each year, Southern New Hampshire University’s (SNHU) Word for Word Literary Series dedicates an event to instructors from its online creative writing programs. This year, the spotlight was on poetry for the first time ever, with instructors Carla Rachel Sameth and Stephanie M. Wytovich reading and discussing their work. Stephanie…

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Morgan Talty

Word for Word, Featuring Special Guest Morgan Talty

On October 11, 2023, Word for Word, Southern New Hampshire University’s (SNHU) online literary series, kicked off its 2023-24 season with special guest author, Morgan Talty, a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation who lives in Levant, Maine. Talty is the author of the critically acclaimed story collection “Night of…

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Silhouette of people throwing graduation caps

6 Creative Writing Graduates Discuss Their Next Chapters

On Wednesday, June 14, 2023, Word for Word, Southern New Hampshire University’s (SNHU) online literary series, held its final event of the season, where we spotlighted six recent graduates of the Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Online Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing programs. Because of the…

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Wooden shelves filled with books in a bookstore

Indie Publishing Experts Offer Advice on Successful Book Promotion

On Wednesday, May 17, 2023, Word for Word, Southern New Hampshire University’s (SNHU) online literary series, convened a panel of indie-publishing experts to explore nontraditional paths to publication. Hosts Jacob Powers and Paul Witcover, the associate deans of SNHU’s online creative writing programs, welcomed three distinguished panelists: Gavin Grant, Michael…

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Stack of open books

Indie Publishing Experts Discuss Costs and Scams for Authors to Consider

On Wednesday, May 17, 2023, Word for Word, Southern New Hampshire University’s (SNHU) online literary series, convened a panel of indie-publishing experts to explore nontraditional paths to publication. Hosts Jacob Powers and Paul Witcover, the associate deans of SNHU’s online creative writing programs, welcomed three distinguished panelists: Gavin Grant, Michael…

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A pen preparing to write on a blank page

Word for Word Honors SNHU’s Fall Fiction Contest Winners

On Wednesday, January 18, 2022, the Word for Word Reading Series at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) featured the winners of the annual Fall Fiction Contest. This year’s contest had over six hundred submissions. The five winners — Douglas Goff, Tim Brumbaugh, Michael Cabrera, H. Derek Pursley and Kevin Broccoli…

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