If you haven't done so already, check out Laura's award-winning essay "Snapshots" and then return here for a chat with the author.
WOW: Congratulations on placing in the Q4 2025 Essay Contest! How did you begin writing your essay and how did it and your writing processes evolve as you wrote?
Laura: I began with the question, “how can I write about parenting my son through his long struggle with addiction within 1000 words?” I decided to ground the essay in the few photos I have of my son as an adult. Those photos, and the fact that there are only a few, are very telling of the consequences addiction had in his life, in my life as his mother. I introduced the essay with the common practice of parents taking snapshots of their children because it is relatable for readers and to the story I wanted to tell. I shifted from “we” to “I” in the midst of the essay to bring in the photos of my son and to tell our story.
WOW: What an innovative way to incorporate photos into your work. What did you learn about yourself or your writing by creating this essay?
Laura: Most of my writing has been long memoir essay form, so creating this essay was helpful for improving my understanding of writing short. It also bolstered my confidence as a writer and motivated me to learn more about brief, poetic forms, which led me to enroll in the WOW! Women on Writing class, “Writing Short, Writing Deep” with Sheila Bender. I’m looking forward to that.
WOW: I’m so heartened to hear that writing this essay was a positive experience, and that you’re inspired to take Sheila’s course. I hope you love it! How did you develop your passion for writing? Or were there any particular moments that inspired your creativity?
Laura: Near the end of my teaching career, I had been working on an 80,000-word memoir about my family's experience with my son’s addiction. When I finished it, the challenge of attempting to publish it daunted me, but also inspired me to work on myself as a writer. I began experimenting with short memoirs, essays, and fiction in an online writing class with instructor and writer Kyle Minor, which was a powerful learning experience. Since then, my passion to improve has driven me to write daily for hours while reading more short work. Late in life, with important stories to tell, so much to learn, and the luxury of retirement, I have become somewhat obsessed!
WOW: Thank you so much for sharing about your writing journey. Which creative nonfiction essays or writers have inspired you most, and in what ways did they inspire you?
Laura: The "go to" essays, I guess you could say. I love Joan Didion's essay, “Good-bye to All That”, the way her long flowy sentences, vivid details and confiding voice sweep the reader along as she explores her love affair and disillusionment with New York City during her time there as a young editor. And E.B. White's reflection on his mortality while vacationing with his son in "Once More to the Lake", especially the strong metaphorical ending. I’m also a fan of the memoir essays I’ve been reading over the past few years in The Sun Magazine. To name just one of those writers, John Paul Scotto, who writes about addiction, family, and relationships with poignant humor and frankness. I like the balance of scene, exposition, and reflection in his essays.
Among the many, many memoirs I've found inspiring are Joyce Carol Oates’s, A Widow’s Story, for her raw descriptions of her intense and devastating grief, and Anne Patchett's Truth & Beauty: A Friendship, for the truth and beauty in her story that brings her friend poet Lucy Grealy to life.
WOW: What a fabulous list of essays, books, and writers. If you could tell your younger self anything about writing, what would it be?
Laura: You are busy, raising kids, caring for your home, studying, teaching, but there is a writer in you, so make more time for writing, while you still have years ahead, because one day, many years from now, you will realize you are a writer, have always been, and writers should write!
WOW: Excellent advice! Anything else you'd like to add?
Laura: Thank you to all writers who create powerful work by exposing their most intimate selves. And to WOW! Women on Writing, for the opportunity to share my essay.
WOW: Thank you for sharing your writing with us and for your thoughtful responses. Happy writing!
Interviewed by Anne Greenawalt, founder and editor-in-chief of Sport Stories Press, which publishes sports books by, for, and about sportswomen and amateur athletes. Engage on Twitter or Instagram @GreenMachine459.
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