This story by Diane Sims is a finalist in the 2020 non-fiction writing competition, "Alone in the Time of Covid-19" I am a brand-new puzzle each COVID19 morning. Still the blinds continue to baffle the breeze. Still the smell of fresh coffee remains so familiar, even if the beans are a tad dear. Still the […]
The winning story from our 2020 writing competition entitled "Alone in the time of Covid-19," this story by Roy Innes brings you inside the life of an elderly gentleman facing social isolation and doing battle with unfamiliar technology. I shouldn’t bitch. I’m not truly alone in this cursed pandemic thing, but after seven months of […]
Exisle Academy was founded during the inferno of 2020. When the publishing world ground to a (mercifully, temporary) halt, our talented and experienced staff from Exisle Publishing and EK Books suddenly found themselves with a rare resource: Time. We decided to use this time to reach out to the many thousands of authors who send […]
Earlier in 2020, Exisle Academy hosted a writing competition with the theme: The Moment My Life Changed. Three finalists and one winner were eventually chosen (congratulations again, Marjorie Counsel), but such was the overall quality of entries received that a decision was made to feature a selection of stories in a resulting anthology, provisionally entitled […]
A Note From Exisle Publishing CEO, Gareth St John Thomas: You could have thought that after a life time in publishing, and my father was a writer and publisher, and his too, I would know what a book would like and feel like before it came back from the printers. But when the advance of […]
A Note From Exisle Publishing CEO, Gareth St John Thomas: Of course, we at the Academy believe that good writing is an essential part of life. There is no living writer who cannot improve their work and all of us can learn from other writers. I suggest that it is especially important for memoir writers to […]
A Note From Exisle Publishing CEO, Gareth St John Thomas: Covid-19 continues to leave a trail of horror in its wake. As writers, we may not be in a position to have a material impact on much of what is occurring, but there are still valuable ways we can help. My own desk, which is […]
This beautiful evocative portrayal of the time and place of a negotiatedmarriage proposal, has been written with a golden clarity. The reader enjoys a real sense of the pace, scenery and values of the 1950's rural West Australia. Story by Marjorie Counsel I’m ninety years old, and five years a widow, but the moment that […]
Written by Gareth St John Thomas As you know the Academy keeps stressing the need to be clear about your audience and writing for them. There are times though when our audience can be surprising and hidden. Our New Zealand publishing house recently published 'Keepers of History' which highlights the lives of some 35 people over […]
A street riot in downtown Los Angeles propels a young man to become a Red Cross Volunteer sweating in the jungles of Vietnam. Story by Mark Scheel The summer of ’67, having just graduated from college and medically exempt from the military draft, I struck out, as they say, for California and soon found […]
