Category: hope and imagination
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Nurturing Connections Through Baking: A Pumpkin Bread Recipe
The post reflects on the deep emotional connections formed through shared rituals The author reminisces and discusses how comfort rituals can provide hope during challenging times. Through baking, they find solace and the power to foster connections.
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On Truth in Fiction and “Wicherek Way: A Short Story”
“For better or for worse, she’d never given any hint of discomfort when her dreams had to face reality.” – from “Wicherek Way,” a short story from the world of the forthcoming novel Kohelette I wouldn’t say my fiction is autobiographical, but I do find myself drawing on bits of real-life experience to ground my…
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When the New Becomes Hard: On Kohelette and Piecing Together A Life After Loss
“She wants to do something new with her life, but she may need the dead to help her do it.” – Kohelette: A Novel How do you feel about doing new things? Energized and excited? Uneasy? Overwhelmed? I’ve been paying extra attention to how I answer that question as we’ve entered the new year. To be…
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On Memories and Acts of Care
“It’s the memories of care that strike me in a different, deeper place.” – from “On Memories and Acts of Care” I’m pleased to share “On Memories and Acts of Care,” which was awarded the 2025 Award of Merit (Best in Book) prize in The Polk Street Review 2025. Watch the Youtube reading below or keep…
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On Baking Bread and Not Knowing What I’m Doing
Sometimes I don’t really know what I’m doing. It’s not always a bad thing. For instance, I’ve had a hankering to bake rye bread lately – real rye bread that smells like yeast and rises on the kitchen counter. I knew nothing about any of it, but I decided a few months ago that a…
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Intentional Places: On Where We Spend Time
I’ve begun volunteering at a local library. Up the steep stairs of an old Greek Revival-style house, artist studios share space with this small, independent lending library focused on women’s history. It drew my attention the very first evening I climbed those stairs and looked around. I’d gone out exploring on one of our city’s…
About the author
Callie J. Smith writes about women who, like her, are finding themselves. Her essays and cozy fiction (contemporary and fantasy) explore everyday things like hope, creativity, and grief.
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