Meredith’s writing journey one of Voyage Chicago’s ‘Most Inspiring Local Stories’

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Voyage Chicago interviewed Meredith recently as part of their Most Inspiring Stories series.

On the freelance lifestyle:

“Taking such a big risk wasn’t easy. Work sometimes still bleeds into my evenings or weekends. But that usually happens when I spend part of my day doing something fun, like going to the beach, working on a creative project, or volunteering. So, it’s worth it, to me. When I’m doing something I want to be doing for work, it doesn’t usually feel like I’m working ‘after hours.’

That being said, the work is not always sunshine and rainbows. There are days when I don’t feel like working, as with any job; even if you love it. Writing for a living requires a lot of focus and precision, so my editors can tell if I have an off day! It’s hard.”

Flash fiction featured in the Chicago Reader

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“Unremembered Skies and Snows” by Meredith Boe

Your hands have always looked too big to hold those meek potatoes. Fingernails peeling and callouses dirt crusted, you hand me a bag of freshly plucked reds and yellows, caked in mud that I’ll wash off later in my Chicago kitchen sink. I still have never seen you happier than when you aren’t driving your truck and can tend to vegetables.

Your hands have been gripped around more Bud Lights than all the plastic six-pack yokes in the ocean, and in cuffs on occasion. They’ve yanked a decaying tooth, no doubt. Long ago carried candles as an altar boy. Shoveled snow gloveless in the dark morning hours, just as the cows begin to stir in the field beyond the barn. Just as distant suns unwillingly fade, yielding to light.

Read the rest in the Chicago Reader here.

Meredith Chats with Poet Richard Jones about His New Book, Stranger on Earth

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“The poet is the gatekeeper who determines that all is a blessing, the good and the bad. So I say in unison with my daughter, include it all in the poetry—sorrow, tears, broken hearts, as well as the delicious madeleines and the glass of cold milk. Every morning, we open our eyes. There should be anticipation and gratitude for the gifts that will be delivered that day.” – Richard Jones

Read the full interview, published by the Chicago Review of Books: here: https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/06/21/stranger-on-earth-richard-jones-interview/

Review of Chris White’s “The Life List of Adrian Mandrick”

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“Birding alone makes sense to Adrian. As a child he felt that ‘birds lifted everything up,’ but that ‘inside the town with its concrete and its buildings, inside the houses with their rooms taped together like boxes, things were spilling, falling, gathering speed on their way to the ground.’ These lilting inner flourishes are when White really shines.”

Read Meredith’s full review of White’s book here.