Check out Alison Holland's blog: Not Your Church Cookbook

Name of your blog: Not Your Church Cookbook

Link to your blog: http://www.alisonandersonholland.com/home/Not_Your_Church_Cookbook/Not_Your_Church_Cookbook.html

What your blog is about: It's a journal of food and faith by a vegetarian with somewhat Unitarian Universalist views living in a rural Minnesota town with few vegetarians and perhaps even fewer Unitarians.

Your name (if you're not blogging anonymously): Alison Anderson Holland

Years you were in the program (year you graduated from Hamline): 2006-2009 ('09)

When you started blogging: May 2011

Why you blog: I started blogging to get myself writing again.  Since the completion of my MALS degree, I haven't found/made the time to write much.  This was my solution.

Who your intended audience is: Those interested in reading about vegetarian cooking, a faith journey, and its relation to raising kids and relating to family and friends in a rural Minnesota town.  While I often talk about my family, I don't aim to be a "mommy blogger."  When I mention my kids, I relate it back to food and/or faith. 

Blogs you like to read: I read a lot of blogs.  That's one reason I was prompted to do this.  The Chaos Chronicles, On Being, Spousonomics, and Dinner: A Love Story are a few of my favorites.

Advice to or question for bloggers: Don't be shy about sharing your work with friends.  They'll no doubt encourage you.  I am a true introverted Minnesotan, but once I got up the courage to begin posting links on my Facebook page, I was amazed by the positive response my friends expressed.

PS: I also began writing a blog for work (December 2010) on the latest news, events, and issues in (rural) regional healthcare: http://staffblog.healthcare-allianceorg/

Thank you for this opportunity to share my new blog(s)!

Fall GLS Exchange

Look what's up!
It's the Fall 2010 GLS Exchange.
There's all kinds of good stuff in here, including some lovely muse news from fellow alumni.
Check it out!

Help keep yourself accountable for writing (and have fun doing it)

A friend in the writers' group I'm in recommended the site 750words.com.  If you want to get cracking on being disciplined and really make the writing habit part of your everyday life, there's nothing like signing yourself up to be on a Wall of Shame.  Just kidding. 

There are some great tools here to help you keep track of your goals.  You also get points and badges and some really interesting features, one of which is like a mood ring based on your writing. 

3 pages a day might be how you start getting back into the practice of writing if you've fallen out of it.  You can do 3 pages a day.  And everyone likes penguin badges, right?

Do you use this site?  Any tips or tricks for those who might be interested?

The new GLS Exchange has arrived!

If you didn't receive the new GLS Exchange through email on Thursday 24 June, you can check it out here.

I'd also recommend letting GLS know your preferred and current email address, as well, so you can be notified of future issues as they are published.

This new, turbo-charged version of the Exchange contains all the content you looked forward to in the paper version and more. Be sure to check out fun additions like The View from West Egg and the Alumni Corner for updates on how you can connect. I'm looking forward to the In the Classroom and the Beyond the Classroom features, myself. Maybe all this community news will inspire you to send us an alumni update or a reading list or book review of your own.

Just because you've graduated doesn't mean you can't still be part of the great GLS community. :)

Does anyone read reviews anymore?

Here's a great article about the state of reviewing I ran across in Publishers Weekly.  I've been reading a lot of reviews online lately, and this bit really resonated with me.

"When I read a scathing, thinly veiled ad hominem attack, or a prolonged act of self-aggrandizing cleverness at another's expense, or a condemnation of a single book for the bigger tendency--or tradition--that it would seem to represent, I tend to think negative reviews are ultimately embarrassing and ruinous for everyone, no matter how exciting they may be to read or gossip about.  But when a reviewer manages to point out a book's shortcomings even-handedly, with care and dignity, and with an eye to raising the bar a little higher for readers and for writers, too--that's another story.  I'd love to see more reviews like that."

Timothy Donnelly quoted in
Craig Teicher's "What Poetry Reviews Are For (and Up Against)"
in Publisher's Weekly March 29, 2010

Rain Taxi got mentioned, too, which was kind of thrilling.

The article as a whole is about whether book reviewing--specificially poetry book reviewing--matters in today's culture.  Be sure to check out the full article for several different perspectives on the issue. 

What do you think?  Do you read reviews?  What do you look for in them?  Do you write them?  What would make you want to read professional reviews?  Are there any reviewers or sites you really trust for consistently high quality reviews?

Read anything great online about writing or thinking?

If you stumble on a great website for writers, thinkers, artists, etc., please pass the wealth along.  Just email us a brief paragraph and a link to the content (website, blog post, online article, or whatever), and we'll pass it on to your fellow alumni.