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What I’m Reading: 9/3-9/9

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What I’m Reading: 9/3-9/9

Macey Shofroth
Sep 8, 2023
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What I’m Reading: 9/3-9/9

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If you’re counting down with me, I get married in nine days.

NINE. DAYS. AHHHHHHHHHH.

At risk of being “that girl that talks about her wedding too much,” I’ll just say—I’m really excited. Marriage is this institution that’s always existed all around me, and I’m conscious of all the ways it stems from patriarchy, but now that it’s almost my turn I’m just so excited to fully surround myself with love and joy all weekend.

I’m sharing with you more things I’ve read this week as almost all of my attention has been directed towards next weekend.

I started to feel some anxiety about putting this together for another week. Am I neglecting this project? Am I taking the easy way out? Is my practice suffering from lack of challenge?

But then I read the pieces I included below from Jami Attenberg and Caroline Cala Donofrio and I remembered that engaging with language, thinking deeply craft, and learning from writers more experienced with me are all serving me as I work to deepen my writing practice. The simple act of putting out *something* in the midst of a hectic moment of my life is proof of how I’ve grown as a writer.

I think I’m doing okay.

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Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison by Joe Garcia

Joe Garcia writes for the Prison Journalism Project, a nonprofit that trains incarcerated writers. This essay on how he came to love Taylor Swift during his incarceration is beautiful and hopeful. He magically captures the transformative possibilities of music, and he uses a perfect opener. I’m excited to learn more about the Prison Journalism Project and support their mission.

One of the most famous incidents of campus outrage was totally misrepresented by Zack Beauchamp

This article is from 2019, but I was surprised I had never heard of this incident. I graduated from the University of Iowa, one of those “omg these LIBERAL KID” schools, and I’ve always thought this idea of outraged students crawling all over college campuses as disingenuous. These tiny incidents are almost always overblown and taken from a small group to represent the entire campus (another piece that fits into my new favorite subject of “how is the media screwing everything up). Most kids are there to make friends, attempt to find some semblance of a path for their lives, and abuse alcohol for a period of time before it becomes uncouth.

Beyond
Caroline Cala Donofrio on How To Best Share Our Personal Writing
I’m excited to share today’s essay by Caroline Cala Donofrio who writes one of my favorite Substacks: Between a Rock and a Card Place. She covers everything from friendship to treasured notebooks (which hold more than memories) to the beauty of wandering to reasons to keep going in this sometimes hard-as-heck world and so much more! She also interviews cool people, offers recommendations on her most cher…
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3 months ago · 79 likes · 49 comments · Jane Ratcliffe

I have a really hard time seeing myself as a capital W *Writer* because I don’t do the freelance hustle, I don’t often have a ton of projects going at once, and I haven’t found the confidence to pitch publications. I also often worry that what I’m doing is more “blogging” than “real” writing, which is a completely self-inflicted fear rooted in a lot of bad ideas about the act of writing (and also, probably misogyny). Reading pieces like this reminds me that my personal writing practice is just as valid and important as any other — as long as I make it a practice. I’m confident I’ll find my rhythm soon.

Showing Up
Dialect of the Human Heart
At a recent dinner with friends, one topic touched upon was changes in our home state. Citing an example of what once was, Keith, a former Iowan, referenced Governor Bob Ray’s 1979 speech to the Disciples of Christ Assembly. I had to admit, I wasn’t familiar with the speech. My excuse: In the late ’70s, I was newly married and living in Minnesota…
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3 months ago · 1 like · 2 comments · Kurtis Meyer

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’ve recently learned a lot about former Iowa Governor Robert Ray. My Iowa Writers Collaborative colleague Kurtis Meyer provided me with more insight this week into the former Governor and what he stood for, and it’s quite lovely.

CRAFT TALK
For the Strikers
Hi friends, A tv writer friend of mine who is a WGA member and has (obviously) been on strike all these months messaged me the other day: So I promised him I would sit down and figure out a way to support him and give him a little pep talk, and this is what I came up with this morning. He said it was OK for me to share it with all of you, strikers or not…
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3 months ago · 66 likes · 11 comments · Jami Attenberg

Jami Attenberg wrote a note to her friend who writes for TV and felt disheartened by the recent strikes. She encourages the friend to think about when the writing was something they did for themselves, and that they “must find a way to extricate your true passion for writing from the work you have been doing for the last decade or so.” As I struggle with my identity as a writer and feeling like my work is “real,” this made me consider the reason I started writing in the first place — to take the contorted knot of thought and feeling making a home in my brain and rearranging it into something cleaner, freeing space for joy and heart.

What I'm Reading
The new Black press is changing the game
Newsrooms nationwide are desperately searching for unique ways to attract new audiences as younger readers shift away from the news brand loyalty of older generations. Jay Taylor and Ryan Sorrell of the Kansas City Defender believe their outlet has “the sauce” that’s turning it into one of the fastest-growing news organizations for young, Bla…
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3 months ago · 28 likes · 1 comment · Phil Lewis

If you haven’t been able to tell, I’ve developed a growing fascination at how badly mainstream media contributes to the incredible media illiteracy in our world. Here’s a story on media that’s doing the opposite, pursuing news without an agenda and lifting up the communities of whose stories they are telling.

Walk It Off
A Walk on the Upper West Side With Jason Diamond
“Hey, you should buy this.” Jason Diamond is holding an all-black cap with orange stitching that reads, “Zabar’s,” urging me to try it on. We’re in line at NYC’s legendary appetizing store—tagline: “New York is Zabar's... Zabar's is New York®”—on 2245 Broadway at 80th Street. Despite never being in the store before in my entire life, I take the hat from …
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3 months ago · 20 likes · 6 comments · Isaac Fitzgerald

Isaac Fitzgerald writes so tenderly about his friends that it always leaves me smiling and falling in love with the person he’s writing about. He knows how to treat a subject, and I love reading what he uncovers during his walks. I was also really excited about how he began this piece, with a small moment to describe the larger essence of his friend, and recognized how this is a way I often open essays myself.


The Midwest Creative is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please consider a subscription to my colleagues’ work to support storytelling across the state of Iowa. All of these authors provide content for free, with paid subscription options. Pick one or more, and help sustain this movement.

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup
Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Letters from Iowans, Iowa
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Darcy Maulsby, Keep’n it Rural, Lake City
Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities
Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative, Iowa
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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What I’m Reading: 9/3-9/9

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What I’m Reading: 9/3-9/9

themidwestcreative.substack.com
Joel E. Lorentzen
Writes Uncommon Sense
Sep 11

Macey: please enjoy my most recent post on the event of 41 years of marriage. Good luck this week and always!

https://open.substack.com/pub/joelelorentzen/p/there-is-love?r=1p5p1m&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

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