The Patchwork Quilt: Piecing an Identity Together My flower quilts filled all four walls of the tiny art gallery as I slowly turned around, trying to take it all in. This was also me, these vibrant colors and bold shapes. Beside each quilt was a card...

Excited to have an essay in this month's edition of Literary Mama - about motherhood, identity....and quilting.
literarymama.com/articles/dep...

Flash essay up at the Journal of Compressed Arts... matterpress.com/journal/2025...

Bye, Bye Barbie — Dorothy Parker's Ashes Word Count 1438 The captain announces we’ll be landing shortly. Across the aisle, a woman stands up and pulls out a long black robe and headscarf from her carry-on bag. When she catches me staring, ...

So happy to have an essay in DPA.... www.dorothyparkersashes.com/noise/reflec...

Don’t Ignore the Ashes by Alison Colwell | Hippocampus Magazine "My husband, John, worked hard to isolate me...." -- Alison Colwell in her essay "Don't Ignore the Ashes."

hippocampusmagazine.com/2024/11/don-...

"But every time someone looked away from me, it left space for John’s violence to continue unchecked."
From my essay in Hippocampus on Domestic Violence. Sometimes the silence of bystanders can hurt as much as the violence of an abuser.

🇨🇦“Buy Canadian movement starts to take a sizable bite out of U.S. business”. Canada understands the assignment! Keep it up, you via Globe and Mail. #nastycanadians !!🇨🇦 #nasty #NastyCanadian #elbowsup #ElbowsUpCanada

So it's been just over four months since we lost our old boy - but today we had a puppy visit and put in an application. I think I'm ready to lose my heart again!!!!

“We will need writers who can remember freedom.”

—Ursula K. Le Guin, 2014

Americans who follow me, please watch this.

This is us.

THE PASTRY CUTTERS “...she was rightly proud of her baking and made everything from scratch….”

The link for the Substack post: thekeepthings.substack.com/p/the-pastry...

It’s publication day for a short little essay I wrote about my Grandma Laura Slaughter (and yes – that’s who my daughter is named after.)
You can read the story at The Keepthings on Substack or Instagram.

Yes!!! She was absolutely incredible in person.

@wordsandguitar.bsky.social

If you are in the U.S. we hope you’re having a good holiday and you got everything prepared that you planned. For some, that holiday checklist is one of doom. Read “How to Survive Christmas” by Alison Colwell in Vibe 65.

www.roifaineantpress.com/post/how-to-...

Our Nov-Dec '24 issue is live! If features #CNF from Alison Colwell, Bridgette Shade, Casey Mulligan Walsh, Jen Machajewski, Kate Lu Sedor, Marcos Reyna, Michael Nagle, Monika Dutt & Rayya Liebich. Plus new reviews, interviews & a craft column! www.hippocampusmagzine.com

In "Don't Ignore the Ashes," Alison Colwell asks: "What role do bystanders play in the lives of others?" Read the essay here:
hippocampusmagazine.com/2024/11/don-t-ignore-the...
#essay

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and no better time for a bite! The holidays, for those living with domestic abuse, can be a conflicted and cofounding time. Read the moving and honest flash CNF piece “How to Survive Christmas” by Alison Colwell in our 65th edition. Sunday 5/26.

I Read Stories: The Perils Of Being Good by Alison Colwell The Perils Of Being Good by Alison Colwell in Crow And Cross Keys They tell the princess she can do anything, be anyone. And then the...

I read The Perils Of Being Good by Alison Colwell in @CrowKeys in which the princess is told she can be whatever she wants, then is put on a glass mountain. nightofthehats.blogspot.com/2024/04/i-re...

Sunset on the Salish Sea. Galiano Island.

An incredible book (Add to your must-read pile) - and a thought provoking reading Friday Night on Galiano Island with Alicia Elliott - author of A Mind Spread Out On The Ground. Thanks to the Galiano Library for organizing.
#Booksky

• Get a library card
• Use your library card
• Support indie booksellers
• Read banned books
• Read diverse authors
• Resist
• Repeat

#booksky #resist

Santa Arrives, Galiano Island
Molly Lamb Bobak
1997

You Could Never Take A Car to Greenland, my daughter says. Unless the car could float. Unless by car you mean boat. Unless the ocean turned to ice and promised not to crack. Unless Greenland floated over here, having lifted its anchor. Unless we could row our country there. Our whole continent would have to come along, wouldn't it? Unless we cut ourselves free. What kind of saw could we use for that? What kind of oars could deliver one country to another? She asks, Why is Greenland called Greenland if it’s not green? Why is Iceland called Iceland if it’s greener than Greenland? Unless it’s a trick, a lie: the name Greenland is an ad for Greenland. Who would go promised nothing but ice? Who would cut her home to pieces and row away for that? Poem by Maggie Smith, from Good Bones (2017)

A poem from GOOD BONES offered without comment, for no reason whatsoever. 👀

Happy Sunday from here. x M

being a “good” and responsible person will not prevent you from experiencing disaster

there is no proper prior planning that will protect you from tragedy and loss

other people experiencing hardship is not evidence of your relative superiority

My late mother, never healthy, would work herself into a state of illness to make Thanksgiving and Christmas fabulous for her family.

It was lovely of her. I’m grateful. And it also made things more anxious.

So we chill out on the holidays. Easy food. Avoid travel. Watch movies.

Bluesky and cats.... (of Pompeii - courtesy of my daughter.)

The Unexpected Gift of an Acceptance — Alison Colwell - Writer Recording the audio became an unexpected gift for my essay “Look Away.”

Recording the audio became an unexpected gift for my essay “Look Away," published by the wonderful women at Writing Class Radio.
podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...

Social Media Sucks: What Now? By Allison K Williams Photo by Alan Copson For 20 years now, I have been Extremely Online. I knew the memes. I kept tabs on news. I connected with thousands of writers and readers around the world,…

Social media is sucking, but hope still flickers (especially here!) I wrote about the need for connection, and where I'm finding it now, for Brevity. Read more -
@dintywmoore.bsky.social
brevity.wordpress.com/2024/11/14/s...

Finding my Lane…. — Alison Colwell - Writer Recently I read a craft essay on memoir about finding your lane and staying there. The author’s words stuck with me because my collection deals with a variety of subjects. What’s my lane? I wondered. ...

Recently I read a craft essay on memoir about finding your lane and staying there. The author’s words stuck with me because my essay collection deals with a variety of subjects.
What’s my lane? I wondered. Does trauma count as a lane?
www.alisoncolwell.com/blog/finding...