When I finally got my PhD, I thought I could relax and rest on my laurels for a moment. My grandfather thought otherwise. The first thing he said after congratulating me was: when are you going to publish the book? Sad to say, twenty years later, I never quite got round to turning that monographContinue reading “From Dissertation to Book”
Tag Archives: writing about writing
Reading to challenge your writing
This summer holiday, I finished the Helsinki libraries reading challenge for 2025 (Helmet means “Helsinki metropolitan area” by the way, not a biker’s or knight’s headgear). At new year, I had decided to face my chronic TBR problem and stop buying new books until I had read some I already have. So I pulled themContinue reading “Reading to challenge your writing”
Women writing about walking
Not that particular woman writing about walking who has been in the news recently. (I haven’t read that book, and now I don’t feel like it, though I enjoyed her two pages in this one.) Women have been writing about walking for hundreds of years. Way Makers: An Anthology of Women’s Writing about Walking bringsContinue reading “Women writing about walking”
Writing, fast and slow
On Wednesdays since the beginning of January, I’ve been doing an exercise from a lovely little book, Creative Writing for Researchers. Taking five months to get through a 160-page book might seem extraordinarily slow. Some of the twenty-odd exercises took twenty minutes. Others took a lot longer. Sometimes I honed a haiku, other times IContinue reading “Writing, fast and slow”
Creative writing for researchers
This is a lovely little book for academic writers who want to dip their toes into creative nonfiction but aren’t sure where to start. In Finnish, it provides a great overview of what’s been happening in the field, from creative research methods to social writing. Best of all, the three authors keep their theory andContinue reading “Creative writing for researchers”
Space crone writing
Le Guin was writing before I was born and I’ll be reading her long after she died. The first Earthsea book came into the world seven years before I did, and I loved them. Like her, it took me a little while to notice that the heroes were men. To notice the women were onContinue reading “Space crone writing”
Writing vengeance
I will write to avenge my people, writes Ernaux. Revenge, writes Szymborska. Why do these Nobelists write vengeance? Sixty years ago, Ernaux wrote a sentence in her diary, that was the springboard for her Nobel lecture: ‘I will write to avenge my people, j’écrirai pour venger ma race’. It echoed Rimbaud’s cry: ‘I am ofContinue reading “Writing vengeance”
Prove you wrote it yourself
Recently, I had to prove that I’d written 300,000 words myself. Why? I’m now a qualified member of the UK Institute of Translation and Interpreting (MITI) for all my three source languages: Finnish, German and Polish into English. If you translate into or out of the “big four” languages, or FIGS (French, Italian, German andContinue reading “Prove you wrote it yourself”
Women writing socially in academia: the lineage of an idea
You might not notice when you started writing something. An idea can take years to develop, and years more to come to fruition. But looking back can be revealing and help you look forward. If you’ve never tried this, I absolutely recommend it. Inspired by Margy Thomas and Helen Sword in #Acwrimoments8 I decided toContinue reading “Women writing socially in academia: the lineage of an idea”
Lydia Davis – Essays One
Here is one of those delightful books that lure you into the pages of their fellows. Reading it, I kept wanting to send photos of pages to particular people. And to read what she’s been reading. By the end, I felt I had made a new friend. Lydia Davis is deftly insightful about her ownContinue reading “Lydia Davis – Essays One”
Ridge Writing Retreats 