Charlotte Lit’s Blog

Welcome to Charlotte Lit’s literary arts blog. What you’ll find here: reviews, interviews, craft essays, previews of literary arts events, and anything else that catches our attention.

Pacing in a Poem

by Tina Barr One element that I often share with students, when we workshop poems, is the movement or pacing of a poem. The poem’s imagistic, linguistic or narrative thrust must convey the reader through the poem. The poem might center on a small drama, and this is fine. Think of a haiku. But the poem’s length has […]

A Little Bit Afraid

A hundred people gathered for a lunch-and-learn session on developing their creative process. Just a quick look at creativity as a discipline rather than an airy flight of fancifulness. As part of that process, I encouraged them to fill their creative wells by seeking experiences outside their comfort zone, what I call “rambles.” One woman […]

Runes

Runes are ancient. They are the symbols from which our alphabet was developed. The first historically documented use of runes in a systematic way (as words) is 50 C.E. It is not known when the first symbols were written, then used to mean the same thing over and over. Scholars still study and argue how […]

Query Letter: Going Beyond the Pitch – Knowing About Who You Are

I’ve read thousands of query letters. Thousands and thousands. At the beginning of my career, the queries came from agents. They were polished. They were short. They were resting on the laurels of that agent’s reputation. If a high-powered agent sent a submission to me or my boss, I knew I had to put whatever […]