On a sunny morning in late April, Christian Science Monitor staff photographer Melanie Stetson Freeman stopped by my Boston studio space to photograph some of my typewriter collection. We had a grand time, taking out one machine after another and creating quite a happy mess. The Christian Science Monitor had been working on a story about the resurgence of typewriter use since the previous October.…
I recently returned from a Boston to Cincinnati road trip with my husband to attend Richard Polt’s Typewriter Swap Meet. While there, I met typewriter collector, all-around fountain pen guy, and podcaster Derek DeWeese. Derek and I chatted this week about the event and all things analog. In this conversation, we touch on: How did I get into fountain pens? What pen do I currently have inked? What…
I recently returned from a Boston to Cincinnati road trip with my husband to attend Richard Polt’s Typewriter Swap Meet. Time to Downsize Richard Polt, author of The Typewriter Revolution , had decided it was time to downsize his extensive typewriter collection . This month, about two hundred of Richard’s exceptional machines were for sale. The catch? You had to collect them in person by the end…
If you were to give yourself permission to start, try, or continue a creative project, what would it be? I've just finished my fourth read-through of The Artist's Way , the twelve-week recovery program for artists, writers, and other stuck creatives. Baseball writer Mollie Knight leads the group every baseball off-season for subscribers to her Substack, The Long Game . One hundred readers joined…
It came to me all at once, the words for the year, pen in hand, scruffy notebook open. The rescued notebook from past years had pages I previously painted. The pen, a large-fisted Ecoline brush pen, was on my desk from live sketching an event the week before. The three core words: replenish—make—connect. An Ecoline is watercolor in a pen and fun to use, laying down thick lines. Later, I added…
Artist and author Amy Stewart, whose Substack, It’s Good to Be Here , is one of my favorite reads, recently threw down this suggestion: Replac[e] doomscrolling with (hear me out!) scrolling through YOUR OWN JOURNALS. It’s way more interesting than you might think. The Artist’s Way This New Year, until March, I'm rereading The Artist's Way with a lovely group led by Molly Knight, baseball author,…
I don’t often stand in line for a typewriter poem. Molly Ovenden wrote me a poem over Zoom two years ago. The legendary Sean Petrie of Typewriter Rodeo wrote me a speedy poem on his Remington 2 at the Museum of Printing’s Qwerty Festival before the pandemic. But last month saw me joining a stupendous line for a typewriter Pop-Up Poem at Boston’s Book Festival. Twenty thousand attend the one-day…
I found myself walking on the campus of Boston University twice weekly this summer as my son attempted to get help from a physical therapy practice there for the medical issue that still impacts him. Sometimes I went into the appointment with him, sometimes I walked in the heat of summer pavement, as far as an hour would allow—this coffee shop, that thrift store, and occasionally a little City…
A guest post by Typewriter Poet, Molly Ovenden Totally Typewriters, Ilkley, Yorkshire I’d already planned to attend the Totally Typewriters event when our very own Michelle Geffken of Paper Blogging , who gave me my Smith-Corona Galaxie in Hunter Red , asked me to cover the event. I was delighted to do so. Wandering through Ilkley on Saturday, 11 October, I crunched rust-coloured leaves. Bright…
Last weekend, it was time for another typewriter letter-writing event at the stationery store, The Paper Mouse in West Newton, Massachusetts. I first held one there in April. Ready … I checked in with the store’s co-owner, Jenny Zhang. Twelve attendees had signed up for the two-hour paid workshop. So, fourteen typewriters to get ready—one for each attendee, plus a few spares. I set out the first…
I have a small Neolithic tool on my desk, a triangle of flint, edges carefully knapped, four centimeters at its longest point. I found it while ‘field walking’ on a Roman site in Norfolk, England, last spring. We were visiting from the States to help my parents get ready to move, my youngest daughter and I, and we also helped walk their dog, Gracie. The farm fields that were our favorite route had…
At this time of year, I walk to the meadow on Peters Hill in the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University every day. It’s too good to miss. (Click any image to see full screen.) There’s a path diagonally up through the center of the meadow, quite steep in parts. It’s a good workout to take that route to the top of the hill, the third tallest in the Boston area. From the top, there is a fine view of…
The previous Paper Blogging post, Storm and Summer, Stream and Still, as with most of my writing, did not start out as a digital document. Silver-Reed—a humdrum but, to me, a wonderful machine It was first written on a typewriter—portable and snappy, good for getting down initial thoughts on the page. That post happened to be written on a Silver-Reed, which I often use to write in bed. It’s a…
Storm and Summer, Stream and Still. All these are Anglo-Saxon words, I learned this week, and they encapsulate this season for me. Storm A repetitive use injury that my son developed over two years bloomed into a crisis a few weeks before finals in the spring. ER visits, ortho doctors, imaging, a flurry of decisions, all these morphed and settled into a rhythm of twice-a-week PT visits all summer…
To begin at the end: the giveaway typewriter reached its forever home in Washington State a few days ago. The recipient, Keri Pauli, messaged: It's here, and it's safe, and it's so so amazing! Thank you!!! Love among the Lilacs — the giveaway typewriter reached its forever home in eastern Washington state. Keri added, I'm attaching the photos I took right away, and also the first thing I wrote on…
Hot off the presses—or poetry typewriter table—I was handed this little handmade booklet yesterday. Much typing, snipping, choosing, and gluing went into its making. The cover has an intriguing 3D swirl of real pencil shavings, thoroughly attached with a thick layer of white glue dried clear. The pages are sturdy black cardstock, hand-ripped. The spine is sewn with yellow embroidery floss. The…
Update: The winner of the 2025 Typewriter Giveaway is Keri Pauli of western Washington State. Thanks to everyone who left such edifying and interesting comments, and I’m sorry that you couldn’t each win. Stay tuned for a giveaway of a book or a small analog tool each month, announced in the email newsletter only. It’s time for the 2025 typewriter giveaway! Every year, I like to give away at least…
A week after Boston’s last typewriter shop, Cambridge Typewriter, officially closed , typewriters were still to be heard in the Boston area, tapping and clacking amid conversation and general enjoyment. Stationery store, The Paper Mouse, in West Newton, Massachusetts, played host, while I provided fourteen typewriters and led the event. Tickets are available for a repeat of this event, October 11,…
The community room in the Fox Branch of the Arlington Public Library, just outside Boston, officially holds one hundred fifty people. That is the limit, and the library got nervous when, in the weeks leading up to their booked event on March 22nd, so many media requests rolled in. The New York Times , WBUR, The Washington Post . What exactly would be happening in their basement space? They called…
This essay first appeared in the Writers Without Margins Journal , Vol 7, March 2022. Writers Without Margins is a non-profit helping writers in non-traditional spaces learn through expressive writing. "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read," suggests Charlie Tremendous Jones. I would add, “and the places you go.” As a teen…