Dear Writers,

Happy Solstice!

Solstice, from the Latin sun (sol) plus to stand still (sistere), represents a time to pause, to reflect, and is often associated with rebirth and renewal. We thought we’d take a moment on this auspicious day to look back at where we’ve been over the past year on the Brevity Blog. Plus, there’s something magical in the folklore of solstice, and we’ve got something magical happening here too.

The Blog’s reach continues to grow—and for that we thank you for your essays, readership and engagement.

We now have over 54,000 Word Press subscribers. In the past year (June, 2023 through May, 2024) the Blog had close to 175,000 visitors and Blog essays were viewed over 314,000 times. We average about a thousand views each day. And our community of engaged readers responded with upward to 3,500 comments.

Ok that’s the numbers but let’s talk about the substance. We’re excited by the Blog’s expanding reach and proud of the quality of the educational content, but, more than that, we’re continually awed by the connection: how each and every essay adds to this 18-year-long conversation about the writing of creative nonfiction that questions, teaches, inspires and/or entertains—that makes us think. (And yes, that is direct from the Blog guidelines.) This is what the Blog is about and this is what you deliver.

Two of the most widely read essays on the Blog last year, “You’ll Never Write in This Town Again” and  “Finding Your Query Comps FAST,” were authored by Allison K Williams, Brevity’s Social Media Editor, an all-around expert on the craft of writing who has her finger on the pulse of the publishing world. Allison is a frequent contributor and everything she writes provides a load of information, gets a lot of eyes, and is worth a read.

Check out our Archive for more from Allison and all of our contributors. Once you are on the Blog just scroll back and you’ll find each post in chronological order.

This year, we’ve also been fortunate to have several experienced writer/editor/educators share their writing know how:

Dorian Fox taught us about voice;

Darien Hsu Gee about micro prose, shorts 300 words or less;

Heather Sellers about how scene is much more than showing and telling;

Lilly Dancyger about braided essays;

Peter Mountford about metaphor; and

Katie Bannon shared the 5 biggest problems she sees in memoir manuscripts.

Each a mini-masterclass in the form of a Blog essay, and this list is not exhaustive. Plus, we’ve published several craft-based interviews with well-established writers like Davon Loeb, Sue William Silverman, Grant Faulkner, BJ Hollars, and Abigail Thomas. And, this list is not exhaustive.

Every Blog essay is essential in its own way. We highlight a few from the last year here to show the depth and range in the content, format, and writing styles that make up the Blog:

Laurie Hertzel’s essay “What’s in a Name?—The Risks of Writing About Family” struck a chord with readers (garnering over 50 comments) and tackled something that challenges all memoirists and essayists.

Summer Koester wrote about telling the brutal truth, the cnf-writer’s never-easy charge, in her essay “When Writing Honestly Makes You a Bad Wife and Mother.”

“Dear Mister Spider” by  Rachel Weinhaus got lyrical and metaphorical and used the frame of a letter to apologize for a battered web and show us how she found her writing confidence again.

In her essay “How It Feels to Be Free,” Barbara Phillips gave a us a close read of Kiese Laymon’s Heavy and shared how his writing gave her the courage to get her true story on the page.

Carlos Greaves’s used an FAQ format to teach us about hermit crab essays (so meta), and his satirical voice reminded us of how much we like to laugh (and how much we like Simone Biles).  The essay’s title, “Crabby Hermits and Simone Biles: Using Satire and Experimental Forms,” says it all.

And, Jessica J. Hill asked and answered an important question for all of us who struggle with imposter syndrome (and don’t we all now and again) in her essay, “Why Writing Your Memoir is Good for Us.”

And this list, too, is far from exhaustive. We appreciate and thank you for all of your submissions and look forward to what we’ll find in the Blog’s inbox going forward.

One more important thank you—we’d like to give a shout out to Claudia Rapp, the Blog’s virtual assistant (celebrating the winter solstice in New Zealand!), who keeps us all on track and makes the Blog run smoothly.

So whether the sun is at its highest or lowest point in the sky where you are, whether you are experiencing the longest day or the longest night of the year, we wish for you renewed energy, inspiration, and a bit of magic in your writing life.

Best,
Dinty, Allison, Heidi and Andrea
The Editors, Brevity Blog