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Many thanks to Alice Hoffman and the editors at Ploughshares for seeing the beauty and peril in my story "Keep You Safe," winner of the
Barbara Lock MD, MFA
4,854 posts
Barbara Lock MD, MFA
@medpie1
I tweet about writing, editing, doctoring, teaching, feminism, and spirit. Winner of Ploughshare's 2026 Alice Hoffman Fiction Award. Staying human.
- ‘I Couldn’t Do Anything’: The Virus and an E.R. Doctor’s Suicide - THANK YOU @nytimes for this careful and clear-eyed piece on my friend’s death by suicide. COVID hit us like a tsunami. @mrothfeld @ColumbiaEM
- Hey, looking at my fiction queues for two lit mags: men are out-submitting women 3:1. Women: men are NOT going to slow down for you, nor should they. Here's what to do:
- Dr. Lorna Breen was my good friend for more than two decades. She was recovering from COVID. I found out about her death by suicide from the @nytimes.
- Replying to @medpie1that's not going to happen to you. You're going to be open-hearted. You really are trying to make good art. Put yourself out there! Keep trying! Don't self-censor! Participate fully with the knowledge that failure teaches you something. You are in development, always will be. 💗
- Replying to @choo_ekThis is already policy at NYP. Most senior person only for aerosol generating procedures, excepting situations of older age, immunocompromise, pregnancy.
- An window into one of the most important aspects of COVID: the experience of death.
- Replying to @medpie1Find a story in one of your files that is sort of done but you're not happy with. Listen to it on a text-to-speech ap. Pay attention to your clause-work and vary your sentence length. Cut out the exposition or put it into dialogue. Start the story at the bottom of page 2. Then,
- Replying to @medpie1she wrote that" under their breath and you'll get a rejection. I once had a streak of 88 rejections in a row. It sucked, but I got over it eventually. Ladies, PLEASE submit your writing. I know that the recent NY Times and New Yorker fiction controversy is scary, but
- I'm not paying $18 for a flash fiction contest. Sorry.
- 🌠We are pleased to announce our Pushcart nominations! Congratulations @tscowen @medpie1 @jihoon_park94 @JillianLuft @siamakvossoughi @angelreadman - you are all blooming brilliant! 🌠 forgelitmag.com/tag/2021-pushc…
- I will complete my first novel tomorrow.
- Replying to @medpie1reflect some recurring objects from your (new) first two pages in the final two pages, (alternatively, place satellites to your kernel back at the beginning), remove any text which feels like summation, and send it to five lit mags today. DO IT. For each
