Children’s and Middle-Grade Stories | Frances Browne (1816–1879)
Frances Browne was an Irish poet and novelist who was blind from the age of eighteen months. She is best known for her collection of...
Susan Stoderl
Apr 28, 20232 min read
Writing Art Songs and Opera to Middle-Grade Fiction | Prairie Girl (2008) Poems V, VI & VII
These poems were written for a song cycle in 2008, Prairie Girl. I wrote about my life as a child growing up in a rural county of Kansas...
Susan Stoderl
Mar 31, 20232 min read
Christine de Pizan | Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orléans
"The Poem of Joan of Arc" is dated July 31, 1429, and was the first poem to honor the historic Jeanne d’Arc. Several legends attributed...
Susan Stoderl
Mar 28, 20232 min read
Writing Art Songs and Opera to Middle-Grade Fiction | Prairie Girl (2008) Poems III & IV
These poems were written for song a cycle in 2008, Prairie Girl. I wrote about my life as a child growing up in a rural county of Kansas...
Susan Stoderl
Mar 24, 20231 min read
From Writing Art Songs and Opera to Middle-Grade Fiction | Prairie Girl (2008)
During my second career, after singing and running a small opera company, I began composing art songs and opera. In 2008, I wrote about...
Susan Stoderl
Mar 17, 20231 min read
Christine de Pizan | Biographical Details of a Medieval Woman Writer’s Life and Learning
One characteristic of Christine de Pizan’s writing is the number of autobiographi-cal details she included in all of her various genres...
Susan Stoderl
Mar 14, 20231 min read
Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) | First Paid Woman Writer
Many years ago, I discovered the medieval writer Christine de Pizan (also spelled Pisan) (1364-1430) when doing research for an opera...
Susan Stoderl
Mar 7, 20232 min read
A Most Unusual Writer’s Life | Charles, Duke of Orléans (b. 1394–d. 1465)
In 1406, Charles and his first wife and cousin were married. He was twelve, and she was seventeen and already a widow. She died of...
Susan Stoderl
Feb 14, 20232 min read
Anne Duffy | The First Female Scottish Poet Laureate Ever (2009-19)
Being a middle-grade female writer, came upon the work of Anne Duffy. The poem that really spoke to me was “In Mrs. Tilscher’s Class.” It...
Susan Stoderl
Feb 7, 20231 min read
Women Writers | The Poetry of Madeleine L'Engle
The quote in the image posted with this entry is from the preface of Lines Scribbled on an Envelope: and Other Poems (1969, Farrar,...
Susan Stoderl
Jan 4, 20232 min read
Morning Stillness
I try to begin my day in stillness each morning. I admit to a fetish for candlelight and prefer votive candles in stained glass holders...
Susan Stoderl
Jun 27, 20221 min read