Those Who Write, Teach

A good essay on the academic writing life by David Gesser in the New York Times magazine here.

Philip Roth Interview, September 16 at Borders West

Fall Workshops at Shake Rag Alley

Fall Creative Writing Workshops at Mineral Point's Shake Rag Alley

There's still time to sign up for Shake Rag's creative writing workshops, including some by MWN's own Dean Bakopoulos

Tuesday Night Writing Workshop 

with Danielle Trussoni

Tuesdays, September 23—November 11 / 6–8:30pm

Visions and Revisions : 
Revising Your Short Story or Novel 
with Dwight Allen 
Saturday & Sunday, October 25–26 / 9am–4pm

Wednesday Night Fiction Workshop 
with Dean Bakopoulos—IN MADISON! 
Wednesdays, September 24–November 12 / 6–8:30pm

Individual Creative Writing Workshop 
with Dean Bakopoulos (ONGOING)

Spring Green Literary Festival Sept 12-13

Spring Green Literary Festival

Article: Books Still Rival Movies For Stirring Emotions

By Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer

Books are just as powerful as movies when it comes to their potential to prod our brains into such reactions as delight, pain or disgust, new research suggests. 

In fact, reading any printed or electronic words, for instance, about someone unknowingly drinking a glass of sour milk is just as likely to make you gag as watching that scene in "There's Something About Mary," when the title character puts the, er, bodily fluid that she thinks is hair gel into her hair, the study finds.

Researchers have known that watching someone perform an action, for example, kicking a ball, activates the parts of the viewer's brain, via so-called mirror neurons, that govern that motion. 

Similarly, when we view a scene in which another person exhibits delight, pain or disgust, the parts of our brain that react when we experience those emotions ourselves are activated. Who hasn't seen another person retch and reacted by heaving themselves, or at least thought about it?

Scientists at the NeuroImaging Center of the University Medical Center in Groningen, Netherlands, wanted to see if that same region that governs those three emotions or reactions — the anterior insula — was activated when people read about someone experiencing disgust.

To test this, they placed participants in an fMRI scanner, which measures changes in blood flow in the brain, and showed them 3-second movie clips of an actor sipping from a cup and then looking disgusted.

"Later on, we asked them to read and imagine short emotional scenarios," said study team member Christian Keysers. "For instance, walking along a street, bumping into a reeking, drunken man, who then starts to retch, and realizing that some of his vomit had ended up in your own mouth."

Finally, the researchers had the participants taste an unpleasant solution while in the scanner.

"Our striking result is that in all three cases, the same location of the anterior insula lit up," Keysers said. Whether this same correspondence in the brain is true of other emotions , scientists aren't sure yet, Keysers told LiveScience.

The results of the study are detailed in the online journal PLoS ONE.

Scientists know that the anterior insula is the seat of the feeling of disgust because people with brain damage to that area lose the capacity to feel disgusted.

"If you give them sour milk, they would drink it happily and say it tastes like soda," Keysers said.

But for people with normally-functioning anterior insulas, sipping that sour milk will result in them spitting it right back out with a "blech." Having the same reaction when watching someone else spit out the milk is an evolutionary advantage: You won't try the same milk if you register the other person's disgust.

"What this means is that whether we see a movie or read a story, the same thing happens: We activate our bodily representations of what it feels like to be disgusted," Keysers said. "And that is why reading a book and viewing a movie can both make us feel as if we literally feel what the protagonist is going through."

Writers & Editors / One-on-One Conference

Registration is open for the Writers & Editors / One-on-One Conference, coming this Oct. 17-19 to Kohler, Wis. Melanie Radzicki McManus, a member of the Madison Writers' Network, is co-chair. Attending editors include:

Bicycling: David Howard, story editor 
Boys' Life: Paula Murphey, senior editor
Ladies' Home Journal, Louise Sloan, senior articles editor
Money, Marlys Harris, senior editor
Redwood Custom Communications, Alice Lawlor, deputy editor
Saveur, Dave McAninch, deputy editor
Southwest Airlines Spirit, Kimberly Garza, assistant editor
Women's Health, Bridget Doherty, senior editor

For more information, please visit the Web site at www.magazinewriters.com. Melanie is also happy to answer any questions about the event. She can be reached at 834-1961 or mrmcmanus@charter.net.

Welcome!

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Madison Writers Network news and resources page.  The purpose of this website and the MWN is to give Madison area journalists, fiction writers, and editors a chance to connect with other locals in the publishing industry. Please check in often to read member news and articles, learn about upcoming readings and conferences, and get the scoop on MWN-sponsored events. Also, several years ago Geoff Gilpin was kind enough to start a Madison Writers Yahoo! discussion group (see the links section). Anyone interested in jump starting that forum is welcome to begin posting.

Please send me links to any personal sites or publications you'd like posted in our links section. Also, send me any professional news, articles, or stories you'd like to share and I will post them. As always, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

-JD