Kathy Fish Flash Workshop 2026 | A Reason to Write WV Ready to deepen your flash fiction craft? Join Kathy Fish for a 5-day residential workshop in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia, November 2-6, 2026. Study with Kathy and guest workshop leaders ...

More details / register here: areasontowrite.com/workshops/ka...

I am so excited for this! Join us in West Virginia for a week of generative flash writing! (Spots are limited and going fast!) Link to sign up at the QR code, also in the comments below.

Thanks so much for reading, Pat! And for sharing this :)

“Frog Heart” making its way into the world as a chapbook! Thanks so much @ikeproject.bsky.social!

"... all she would have done to keep her children safe and alive, all she'd tried to do, all she'd given up, yet how blind she'd been, how weak and scared her version of love had been in the face of the world and its whispering voices."

Frog Heart by @joybaglio.bsky.social @ikeproject.bsky.social

And I should mention this: While taking these photos of the "Frog Heart" chapbook at the pond by my house, the (fickle) wind blew one of my chapbook copies into the water - so yes, the Frog King is very much present, and he is calling!

TO ORDER: April 18th is official publication day! This chapbook is SO gorgeous, pocket-sized, & a perfect gift for fairy tale-loving friends, family, or any one who could use a story about letting go, the journey of parenthood, or frogs! Order at the link in my bio, or here: tinyurl.com/33y939pz

ENTER "FROG HEART" GIVEAWAY (by 4/24)! Ploughshares is doing a giveaway, free to enter! Winner receives my new "Frog Heart" chapbook (by @ikeproject.bsky.social) & Ploughshares issue where the story first appeared! To enter, go to @pshares.bsky.social's Instagram post, or here: tinyurl.com/mpt5j26r

Excited to share that I’ll be week three faculty at Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing this September! I’ll be leading three seminars, consulting with attendees, & hanging out / exploring the island! If you'll be there, let me know in the comments - and looking forward to meeting you!

Would love to hear some other boundaries you're practicing, beyond these! Feel free to share in the comments! This list can become a helpful resource for creatives who need these reminders.

We sometimes have to be firm - with self & others - about what we need creatively. I am practicing:
• Saying no more (and yes to more writing)
• Not being as reachable (via email & phone)
• Keeping my word to myself about deadlines
• Realizing that these boundaries are in service of my soul

Me too, Brian! I am just sitting here talking aloud to myself, reading aloud, getting excited - it's completely ridiculous, but completely joyous too. (And of course I struggle with it a lot - but the good work really comes from the excited zeal, I find.)

Litmus test for your writing: Are you having fun? Yes, writing is hard. It can be maddening; we can feel stuck, all of that. Yet in my experience, my best work happens when there's some speck of FUN. This doesn't mean there's no struggle - just that I can glimpse fun through it.

TODAY (April 1) is the last day to apply for a Radiant Collective Fellowship at PSWH! Six writers will receive a week-long summer residency (August 8 - 14)! I am the final judge & will be there too that week! If you’re within 70 miles from Bennington VT, you can apply here: tinyurl.com/2whwuzwf

Thinking today about my magical week last summer at Prospect Street Writers House in Bennington VT! Here I am (right of couch) at our final sharing-of-work at the end of the residency week. It was a week of writing, delicious communal dinners, & evening walks. Why am I thinking of all this? (1/2)

For those interested: The Porches has several fellowships each year - though you can also pay (a very reasonable rate!) & come any time. I'll be doing a longer Substack post on retreat & residencies recommendations (& building your own) soon. Also teaching a Zoom workshop on it this weekend, 3/29.

The Porches is such a special retreat! For the first week, I was joined by my dear friend (and incredible writer) @laraehrlich.bsky.social, author of the fabulist short story collection Animal Wife & the mythological mermaid novel Bind Me Tighter, Still. Keep an eye on her work - it's amazing. (3/4)

I worked obsessively on getting my novel manuscript's first 100 pages ready for my agent to read - & there were so many synchronicities that occurred: a nearby vegan cafe named after my protagonist, a dilapidated shoemaker’s cottage across the street - as in my story! (2/4)

Recently returned from a 12-day writing retreat at The Porches, in VA, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains! So grateful for the Nancy Zafris Short Story Fellowship, which made this possible - & to magical founder Trudy Hale - who even got me to play my bagpipes before I left! (1/4)

Oh yes - feeling this too!

Hehe YEP there with you on this one!

Have been writing and revising nonstop (at a retreat in Virginia!) but what's become VERY apparent is how much I repeat certain words: "Flickering," "bright," "darkness," and "something" - so I've been on a mission to expand vocabulary around these words. Are there certain go-to words you have?

So much thanks, too, to @pshares.bsky.social, for all their support, and for giving the story it's first home!

Cover art is an original papercut, by UK artist Darin Mount!

THIS APRIL! Excited to share my short story "Frog Heart" - a fairy tale about parenthood & trying to save the ones we love - originally in Ploughshares - in its new form as a standalone chapbook, thanks to @ikeproject.bsky.social! Pre-order & read about it here: asterismbooks.com/product/frog...

And before you watch our full Nevermore recording (haunted #AWP26 event) here’s a short peak thanks to @cieramcelroy.bsky.social! Reading features Carmen Maria Machado, @sequoian.bsky.social, GennaRose Nethercott, me, Jen Pullen, & Matthew Lansburgh! Full recording here: tinyurl.com/yc73pt7n

Thanks! It was lots of fun and very special for sure.

Nevermore: A Haunted Literary Reading at AWP26 Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop hosted Nevermore: A Haunted Literary Reading, at the 2026 AWP conference in Baltimore! The event took place in the theater of the (reputedly) haunted Lord Baltimore Hotel, just blocks from where Edgar Allen Poe lies buried, and featured acclaimed authors Carmen Maria Machado, Sequoia Nagamatsu, GennaRose Nethercott, Matthew Lansburgh, as well as the hosts of the event, Joy Deva Baglio and Jennifer Pullen. The authors shared ghostly readings and craft tips for writing speculative and otherworldly stories, while (flameless!) candles flickered in the dark theater. Learn more about Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop and find out what events we're hosting at www.PioneerValleyWriters.org! 00:00:00 - Welcome / Theory of Poe's Death 00:04:42 - Matthew Lansburgh 00:13:14 - GennaRose Nethercott 00:25:09 - Jennifer Pullen 00:34:10 - Joy Deva Baglio 00:47:43 - Carmen Maria Machado 01:03:00 - Sequoia Nagamatsu FEATURED AUTHORS (in reading order) MATTHEW LANSBURGH’s collection of linked stories, Outside Is the Ocean, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a finalist for the 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. His fiction has appeared in journals such as One Story, VQR, and New England Review, and has been shortlisted in the Best American Short Stories series and the Pushcart Prize series. Matthew received his MFA from NYU and has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell, and Yaddo. GENNAROSE NETHERCOTT is the author of a novel, Thistlefoot, and a short story collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart—winner of the Vermont Book Award for Fiction. Her first book, The Lumberjack’s Dove, was selected by Louise Glück as winner of the National Poetry Series— and as a folklorist, she serves as the head writer behind the podcast Lore. Nethercott’s work has been dubbed best-of-the-year by NPR, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Independent Review of Books, BookPage, and more—and she spends her time touring widely, performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow). She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery. JENNIFER PULLEN holds a PhD from Ohio University. Her books include Fantasy Fiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology from Bloomsbury Academic, the first and only comprehensive history of fantasy and craft guide, A Bead of Amber on Her Tongue, winner of the Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction Award, and Beastly: An Anthology of Shapeshifting Fairy Tales from Lanternfish Press. Her debut novel, Once Upon a Burning World, will be released in 2027 by Meerkat Press. She grew up running wild in the forests of Washington State but has since been sufficiently domesticated to become an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio Northern University. JOY DEVA BAGLIO is the founder of Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop, a literary arts organization offering writing workshops & literary community, based in Northampton MA and virtually. Her short stories are widely published in journals such as One Story, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, American Short Fiction, and Tin House, among others. She’s received grants & residencies from Yaddo, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, The Kerouac Project, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and Sewanee Writers Conference, among others. She lives in Northampton MA, where she can also be found playing the bagpipes & searching for portals to other worlds. CARMEN MARIA MACHADO is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, among others. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. SEQUOIA NAGAMATSU is the author of New York Times Editors' Choice and national bestselling novel, HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK, and the story collection, WHERE WE GO WHEN ALL WE WERE IS GONE. He's been named a finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Award and Locus Award, shortlisted for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize and longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award in addition to fellowship support from the Breadloaf Writers Conference and the U.S. Embassy. His short fiction has appeared widely in publications such as Conjunctions, The Southern Review, Tin House, among others. He teaches creative writing at St. Olaf College and also serves as a faculty mentor at the Rainier Writing Workshop Low-Residency MFA based at Pacific Lutheran University.

Here’s the full Nevermore recording, for those who missed it or couldn’t get in: tinyurl.com/5yvaf3p8

Nevermore: A Haunted Literary Reading at AWP26 Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop hosted Nevermore: A Haunted Literary Reading, at the 2026 AWP conference in Baltimore! The event took place in the theater of the (reputedly) haunted Lord Baltimore Hotel, just blocks from where Edgar Allen Poe lies buried, and featured acclaimed authors Carmen Maria Machado, Sequoia Nagamatsu, GennaRose Nethercott, Matthew Lansburgh, as well as the hosts of the event, Joy Deva Baglio and Jennifer Pullen. The authors shared ghostly readings and craft tips for writing speculative and otherworldly stories, while (flameless!) candles flickered in the dark theater. Learn more about Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop and find out what events we're hosting at www.PioneerValleyWriters.org! 00:00:00 - Welcome / Theory of Poe's Death 00:04:42 - Matthew Lansburgh 00:13:14 - GennaRose Nethercott 00:25:09 - Jennifer Pullen 00:34:10 - Joy Deva Baglio 00:47:43 - Carmen Maria Machado 01:03:00 - Sequoia Nagamatsu FEATURED AUTHORS (in reading order) MATTHEW LANSBURGH’s collection of linked stories, Outside Is the Ocean, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a finalist for the 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. His fiction has appeared in journals such as One Story, VQR, and New England Review, and has been shortlisted in the Best American Short Stories series and the Pushcart Prize series. Matthew received his MFA from NYU and has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell, and Yaddo. GENNAROSE NETHERCOTT is the author of a novel, Thistlefoot, and a short story collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart—winner of the Vermont Book Award for Fiction. Her first book, The Lumberjack’s Dove, was selected by Louise Glück as winner of the National Poetry Series— and as a folklorist, she serves as the head writer behind the podcast Lore. Nethercott’s work has been dubbed best-of-the-year by NPR, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Independent Review of Books, BookPage, and more—and she spends her time touring widely, performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow). She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery. JENNIFER PULLEN holds a PhD from Ohio University. Her books include Fantasy Fiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology from Bloomsbury Academic, the first and only comprehensive history of fantasy and craft guide, A Bead of Amber on Her Tongue, winner of the Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction Award, and Beastly: An Anthology of Shapeshifting Fairy Tales from Lanternfish Press. Her debut novel, Once Upon a Burning World, will be released in 2027 by Meerkat Press. She grew up running wild in the forests of Washington State but has since been sufficiently domesticated to become an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio Northern University. JOY DEVA BAGLIO is the founder of Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop, a literary arts organization offering writing workshops & literary community, based in Northampton MA and virtually. Her short stories are widely published in journals such as One Story, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, American Short Fiction, and Tin House, among others. She’s received grants & residencies from Yaddo, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, The Kerouac Project, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and Sewanee Writers Conference, among others. She lives in Northampton MA, where she can also be found playing the bagpipes & searching for portals to other worlds. CARMEN MARIA MACHADO is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, among others. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. SEQUOIA NAGAMATSU is the author of New York Times Editors' Choice and national bestselling novel, HOW HIGH WE GO IN THE DARK, and the story collection, WHERE WE GO WHEN ALL WE WERE IS GONE. He's been named a finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Award and Locus Award, shortlisted for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize and longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award in addition to fellowship support from the Breadloaf Writers Conference and the U.S. Embassy. His short fiction has appeared widely in publications such as Conjunctions, The Southern Review, Tin House, among others. He teaches creative writing at St. Olaf College and also serves as a faculty mentor at the Rainier Writing Workshop Low-Residency MFA based at Pacific Lutheran University.

Here’s the full Nevermore recording, for those who missed it or couldn’t get in: tinyurl.com/5yvaf3p8

More Nevermore photos, the haunted off-site event Jen Pullen and I hosted (through @pvww.bsky.social). Here: the haunted Lord Baltimore hotel theater, the hundreds of people lined up to get in, & some of the authors hanging out post-reading! (Before we sleuthed ghosts on the 19th floor!) #AWP26