The most shocking thing I learned from my Intro to Journalism class was not how to write a lead— that one came in at a close second. The...

The sun’s beaming rays that warm the skin ever so lightly. A gentle breeze that flows from the east, ruffling the hair and clothes. The...

Many writers listen to music as they write, whether to simply minimize distraction, or to let the mood of the music work its way...

I hear the question all the time—from parents of prospective students, neighbors, acquaintances, strangers on a plane: What do you do...

I’m often asked how I do it—help run a literary journal, go to grad school, write a thesis, plan a wedding, among the ten million other...

“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.” – Wernher von Braun Wernher von Braun was a man of science, an aerospace...

I noticed something in my recent creative writing classes: we writers love the idea of telling a bigger story. We all want to have a...

What does it mean to cultivate a good environment for writing? I don’t think it’s just about minimizing distraction and maximizing...

Sydney J. Harris, an American journalist for the Chicago Daily News and, later, the Chicago Sun-Times, once said, “the whole purpose of...

We, writers, tend to be too hard on our writing. Sure, our work can always be improved, but they’re not always as terrible as we tend to...

Submissions for issue 16, Moxie, open on February 15! Check out our call for submissions (chautauqua.submittable.com), and send us some...

A quick list of tips and tricks for conducting a successful interview.

Whenever I submit a story or essay to a journal, I feel a satisfying sense of expectation: smart people are about to read my words, and...

From the time we enter school, we learn one lesson more powerfully than any other: mistakes are bad. This is often reinforced in our...

The final week of October was the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s eighteenth annual Writers Week. After a busy yet rewarding...

Chautauqua, the literary journal of Chautauqua Institution, has nominated six contributors featured in Chautauqua 14: Invention and...

One of the most important tasks for a writer is choosing the point of view. The writer must ask who the narrator of the story is. Is the...