Excerpts from @wordsbyladonna.bsky.social's essay, "A Tender End," published in Volume 3, Issue 1. We paired this piece with artwork by Kate Efimochkina. Read the piece here: turningleafjournal.com/2026/06/15/l...

"This is how the disease progresses. We lose her first by inches, then by miles." This week's essay by @wordsbyladonna.bsky.social

“There’s always five minutes to write... Because five minutes can lead to ten. Because a month of five minutes adds up to a few new pages... Because those five minutes might be the best part of your day. Because those five minutes could feel like saving your life.” - @jamiattenberg.bsky.social

Incredibly pleased to have a new piece in KHÔRA's 49th issue this month...

LaDonna Witmer | Sea Swimming — KHÔRA

In the sea near Galway a woman howls at the full moon. She howls with her mouth full of salt. Salt and blood and something deeper than language. Last week her father died. He died in a lawn chair unde...

corporealkhora.com

I'm teaching a writing workshop about shame: wordsbyladonna.com/workshops

"American history needs more names, not fewer. It needs the names of the famous and the names of those who... have remained unidentified in personal and institutional archives. Take that shoe box out of your closet and label your family photos. Everyone’s story matters."

When a Historian Saw This Haunting Photograph of a Nameless Native Girl, She Decided She Had to Identify Her

In 1868, Sophie Mousseau was photographed at Fort Laramie alongside six white Army officers. But her identity—and her life story—remained unknown for more than a century

smithsonianmag.com

Teaching two writing workshops via Zoom rn, seats still available for a 1-session class called "Write Your Life" and four sessions of a generative/germinating class called "How to De-Fang Shame"... wordsbyladonna.com/workshops

Workshops — LaDonna Witmer

wordsbyladonna.com

“There is a Gaza—an unwanted and dominated population—behind most stories of democractic rule, which is why the truth that Gaza embodies has the potential to dismantle our world order." —Tareq Baconi in “Confronting the Abject”

The amount of awful in the world is overwhelming. But there is always something we can do to help. Here is a small thing you can do right now if you have extra cash in your pocket and believe writing is essential: Click below to help my friend Nicole. gofund.me/6c4724ad

Donate to Help Nicole Continue Her Writing Journey in Ireland, organized by Nicole Morris

Two years into my midlife pivot, living out my wildest dream as a wr… Nicole Morris needs your support for Help Nicole Continue Her Writing Journey in Ireland

gofund.me

"Would I have come all this way if my mother weren’t disappearing?" - from "Like a Deer in the Dark," @wordsbyladonna.bsky.social's essay about visiting aging parents in rural Illinois in our July/August issue:

Like a Deer in the Dark

Rural Illinois, March 13, 9:36 p.m. I do not want to be here. The flight from Lisbon to Chicago was 10 hours, then the chaos of passport control and luggage retrieval. The line at the Budget car re...

literarymama.com

"Not all immigrants are created equal. Not in circumstance, not in reception, not in opportunity, and certainly not in the English language. We define the terms that create hierarchies within our societies: Who matters and who doesn’t. Who gets welcomed and who gets cast out."

Migration Semantics

The white supremacy of it all

wordsbyladonna.substack.com

My lit wife Nicole Morris tells it how it is in her latest essay: "You have to have money to be a real writer... It’s just like anything else in these systems of dominance and power. Some of us get in; most of us are locked out."

It Costs Too Much to Be a Writer || A Working Class Rant

To be a writer who has a chance at making it, you gotta pay to play.

nikkidmorris.substack.com

One thing I love is that sometimes I forget about this poem, and then I cross paths with it again and fall in love once more like the first time I met it:

This Friday, DON'T BUY ANYTHING! <illustration by Martha Rich>

Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 12:52pm Lisbon time: I finished the first draft of my book. 294 pages, 78,777 words. Time to celebrate and then go back to the beginning with a red ink pen.

My mom has Alzheimer's and doesn't know who I am anymore. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if she hadn't lost herself.

In a Different Version of This Story

(There are things that will never be)

open.substack.com

My friend Nicole has a brilliant piece out in Blood Orange Review. Here's the first sentence: "The biopsy revealed the start of tooth and bone material, keratin and hair, the beginning and ending of what would have been my twin at conception." The rest is here: bloodorangereview.com/take-care/

Loving this gorgeous poem, "Willingly" by Barbara Sabol... @swwim.bsky.social www.swwim.org/swwimeveryda...

SWWIM Every Day — SWWIM

by Barbara Sabol

swwim.org

They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, but that is exactly how book publishing works, right? On using rejection as a signpost. Not so much "No" as "Next!" open.substack.com/pub/wordsbyl...

The Hard Nos

Nowhere to go but around

open.substack.com

A gorgeous piece of writing from Jessica Petrow-Cohen in The Common. "It’s happening now, in June, not then, in June, time is collapsing, June is June is June. I’m sticky in June’s web, tangled, caught, strangled." www.thecommononline.org/the-laws-of-...

The Laws of Time and Physics

JESSICA PETROW-COHEN <br> My necklace has a thin silver chain and a pendant made of sapphires. My mommy says she knew that my mama was ready to die when she gave away her jewelry. I can see it all so ...

thecommononline.org

Rejection is something every writer faces. But how do you press on when those rejections begin to feel overwhelming? Benjamin Schaefer has advice we all need to hear from time to time. electricliterature.com/all-of-my-accepted-stories-started-with-rejections

All of My Accepted Stories Started with Rejections - Electric Literature

I can't sacrifice my writing for the business of advancing my career

electricliterature.com

Early January is brutal for writing rejections. It's like all these editors were sitting on their reading queues for months but now they're finally wading through submissions and damn. My inbox is like a firehose of No.

I know it's January, but ugh, this writing! It's so good I want to eat it. www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/12...

Christmas Tree Diary - The Paris Review

“Yesterday I made enough money in wages and tips to pay my half of the monthly mortgage. This morning I found a pine needle in my butt crack.”

theparisreview.org

Ready or not, the New Year is upon us. I am riding out to meet it with every intention to at the very least not make it worse and at the very best make it better, bog witch style. wordsbyladonna.substack.com/p/dont-make-...

Don't Make It Worse

Beginning as I mean to go on

wordsbyladonna.substack.com