by N. Ryan Tucker “Train a Comin’” placed first in Southern New Hampshire University’s 2024 Fall Fiction Contest. I don’t remember makin’ the devil no damn deal. Musta bargained with him when I was a kid. Can’t call to mind much of them times anyway. I knew it weren’t no…
Featured Writing
Instructor Spotlight: Adrienne Kisner and Melissa Marr
Each year, the Word for Word Literary Series dedicates an event to instructors from Southern New Hampshire University’s (SNHU) online creative writing programs. This year, the spotlight was on young adult literature, with instructors Adrienne Kisner and Melissa Marr reading and discussing their work. Adrienne Kisner is the author of three…
Alumna Writes a Resource for Grieving Families While Earning 2 Degrees
By Rebecca LeBoeuf Michelle Shreeve ’15G ’16G was a child when she lost her mother, and resources were limited for young families coping with the death of a parent. This experience fueled her desire to help others deal with similar grief, and through her love of writing, she addressed what…
The Penmen Profile: Women’s Fiction Writer Julie Pennell
by Rebecca LeBoeuf Julie Pennell published her debut novel, “The Young Wives Club,” in February. Pennell’s book follows four young women, still in relationships from high school, as they discover how complicated love is. With praise from Kirkus, Booklist, Bestselling Author Karen White and others, “The Young Wives Club” shifts…
The Penmen Profile: Bestseller Robin Wasserman
by Rebecca LeBoeuf “Girls on Fire,” Robin Wasserman’s first adult novel, was named an NPR and a BuzzFeed Best Book of the Year in 2016. The book also received praise from the New York Times, the Associated Press, Booklist and Cosmopolitan, among many other positive reviews. A faculty member of…
The Penmen Profile: YA Sci-fi Author Ryan Dalton
by Rebecca LeBoeuf Ryan Dalton’s second book from the “Time Shift Trilogy” hits shelves in April, so there’s still time to read his debut novel and book one, “The Year of Lightning.” This young adult science fiction trilogy follows not-so-normal teenage twins as they encounter and solve mysteries and often…
The Penmen Profile: “Jerkbait” Author Mia Siegert
by Rebecca LeBoeuf Southern New Hampshire University professor Mia Siegert writes contemporary young adult, adult thriller and literary fiction in the form of short stories, articles, personal essays and now novels. Published May 2016, Siegert’s coming-of-age novel, “Jerkbait,” was identified as the top new release in Teen and Young Adult…
The Penmen Profile: YA and Historical Fiction Author Han Nolan
by Rebecca LeBoeuf Han Nolan is the author of nine young adult fiction and historical fiction novels. Her first novel, “If I Should Die Before I Wake,” published in 2003, achieved the International Reading Association/Children’s Book Council Book Award. In this book, Nolan unites the present with a dark part of history,…
The Penmen Profile: Award-Winning YA Novelist Jo Knowles
by Rebecca LeBoeuf Jo Knowles is an award-winning author of young adult and middle grade fiction novels. Her first novel, “Lessons From a Dead Girl” (2007), was presented with The Pen New England Children’s Book Discovery Award and named A New York Library Book for the Teen Age. Knowles’ middle grade fiction novel,…
The Penmen Profile: Young Adult and New Adult Author William Vaughn
by Diane Walters William Vaughn is a writer of Young Adult, New Adult and technical manuals, living in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, Marilyn. A lifelong adventurer, Vaughn has travelled all over the world, starting at a young age with his military family. He went to school in Germany,…
Author James Patterson Talks with Tim Morrison of TIME Magazine
James Patterson has sold over 180 million books and, as he says in the interview below, works on up to 30 pieces at any given time. He sat down with Tim Morrison, a TIME magazine contributor, for a 10-question interview.