creative writing

Lately: Creative Writing and Rediscovering Martha

October 16, 2026 By Allison Leave a Comment

Back in June, my prose poem “Instructions for Perrine” was published in an Ekphrastic Review challenge. Inspired by Helene Schjerfbeck’s Factory Workers on the Way to Work, I joyfully toiled over the piece for a few days and was so pleased to see it in print. It’s only 100 words! If you’d like to take a look, click here and scroll down to the 9^th piece.

Did you know that first editions of Martha Stewart’s 1982 Entertaining sell for $100 or more? This cookbook occupies a chunk of my childhood kitchen memories. Mom’s baguette recipe, or “Homemade French Bread,” is from Entertaining. Her battered copy—a first edition—was often open on the kitchen counter. It has been so loved that it no longer has its cover. I have my grandmother’s lake house copy, also a first edition. I pulled it out this week and reunited with Martha in her frilly blouse, reigning over her dining room table. The lake house copy is gently used. The dust cover has a tear and the spine is askew, but the tome is intact.

Since I possess the vacation house copy, I can only learn so much about Grandma’s relationship to Martha’s seminal publication. The French bread pages are stained, so she surely tried her hand at this recipe. The pages for the Midnight Omelette Supper for Thirty are rumpled and splattered. I’m guessing she made Swiss Cheese Omelettes or possibly Creamed Spinach Omelettes for friends who were up for the weekend. I am confident that the Red Caviar and Sour Cream Omelettes never happened in the Clear Lake Kitchen.

Grandma Mary Ellen was my “cookie grandma,” and she was forever in search of the next best cookie. A few scratchy brown spots tell me that she may have tried her hand at Alexis’s Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies. Given the splashes on page 125. she must have made Almond Cookies as well.

Martha’s recipes speak to me too. I savored delectable Lions’ Head Meatballs at a dinner party in France last year, and I discovered that Martha has a recipe for this dish in her Chinese Banquet for Ten to Twelve menu. Mom suggested I make the Stuffed Chicken Breasts from the At-Home Wedding menu. I could serve these the next time I invite students to dinner. The Apple Tart Normande is calling my name; I’d just have to acquire a bottle of Calvados.

It’s good to be back in this space. Stay tuned for future musings…

I Published a Piece of Fiction!

July 25, 2025 By Allison

I’ve been quiet in this space the last year as other creative projects percolated. This morning, I was delighted to learn that a piece of my very short fiction was accepted for publication in an online journal called The Ekphrastic Review. Twice per month, the journal runs a challenge and publishes a selection of the entries. My story An Offering is amongst those chosen for the most recent challenge. To read it, click here and scroll down to the fourth piece from the bottom of the page.

So, what’s ekphrasis? A derivative of Greek, “ekphrasis” means “description.” Ekphrastic writing is creative writing inspired by the visual arts. My fellow writers and I responded to the mysterious painting Dances by Arch Hades, featured at the top of this post. An Offering revisits an experience I had as a toddler and never knew how to put into words. This summer, I finally realized that fiction is the best form for this long-ago, baffling encounter.

I am wading through the contributions of the other authors, gratified to have my work aside theirs. Each of these stories or poems could be a quick read before bed or material for doctors’ office waiting rooms. Happy reading and happy creating!

Going to the Movie

January 17, 2022 By Allison

Today’s guest contributor is my 7 year-old niece Sylvie Rose. An aspiring writer, Sylvie likes soccer, Roblox, and fake nails.

One day I got to go to a cool movie with my parents. The movie was about a good tennis player named Serena. I like that she did really cool matches and won trophies. She made me think it was me!!!

I Lost the Art of Letter Writing

February 24, 2018 By Allison

When I was eight, my grandmother gifted me my first diary. She must have ordered it from the Lillian Vernon Catalog. It was bright pink with tiny yellow and purple hearts. It had a lock and key. I was tickled.

I began writing in my diary on January 1, 1987. Since I hated boys and didn’t have any secrets to record, I wrote about my days. Math class-basketball practice-sleepover. Reading class-basketball practice-dinner with the neighbors. Math class-basketball practice-Connect Four with Beej and Trish. After a month, I realized that my third grade life lacked variety. My diary had become repetitive, so I set it aside.

In middle school the expected intrigues sprouted, so I began to journal. At about the same time, I became a prolific letter writer. For almost two decades, I penned three and four page letters on fine paper with fancy pens provided by my father. During those formative years, I filled pages and sent them to friends around the world. I loved the tactile experience of putting words to the page, of embroidering my stories on paper.

Several years ago, I abruptly stopped writing letters. I still have an abundance of beautiful stationery, and I sign important documents with Dad’s Waterman pens. Why did I abandon a beloved and soothing activity? I often hear people say that they just don’t have time to write letters, and although time is a consideration, I don’t really buy that explanation. We choose how to spend our precious time—with family, in front of Netflix, at the gym, or hard at work. Although I am nostalgic for the ambitious letter-writing me, I choose to use my leisure time differently. I want to take walks with my friends, and I want to share meals with them. For now, face-to-face exchanges with loved ones take precedent over letters.

Yet the blank page still calls to me. Its emptiness is an inspiring, potential space of creation. When I sit down in front of a blank piece of paper or a white computer screen, ideas shoot through me and chains of words form in my mind’s eye. Some of them make their way to this blog—a crisscrossed echo of the journaling and letter-writing I left behind. Happily, I am still “embroidering”.

Inspriations

My lovely friend Dana is a talented letter writer who blogs about all things mail on Save Snail Mail.

Thomas Mallon’s book Yours Ever investigates letter writing in the western world.

I once visited the delightful Musée des Lettes et Manuscrits where I saw several of Matisse and Picasso’s letters. Sadly, the museum closed in 2010.