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Patti Witten
Patti Witten

159 Followers

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4 days ago

Leaving Medium

But you can still find my writing. — Hello followers, I hope you are staying safe, healthy, happy, and at ease. I am leaving Medium. But you can follow my writing here: pattiwittenauthor.com. Please subscribe and let me know how your writing is going.

Writing

1 min read

Leaving Medium
Leaving Medium
Writing

1 min read


Mar 4, 2022

Today I leave my writing and communications job at Cornell University in the College of…

Today I leave my writing and communications job at Cornell University in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. Over six years, I wrote more than 140 editorials, countless tag lines and stand firsts, and scouted the internet for media mentions of college faculty, students, and staff. I learned so much about communications writing at this job. It really upped my game. My favorite piece written for the college was about Architecture and Engineering professor Donald P. Greenberg, a major figure in the history of computer graphics and 3D rendering.

Writing

1 min read

Today I leave my writing and communications job at Cornell University in the College of…
Today I leave my writing and communications job at Cornell University in the College of…
Writing

1 min read


Dec 5, 2021

Get Back: Breaking Up with The Beatles

This week, I watched The Beatles: Get Back. The film shows that The Beatles were near the end of their arc as a band. It’s clear without knowing the future. So, an end, but also a beginning, and a continuation. That period was the start of George’s solo artistic arc…

The Beatles

5 min read

Get Back: Breaking Up with The Beatles
Get Back: Breaking Up with The Beatles
The Beatles

5 min read


Published in The Lark

·Aug 21, 2021

Ours is Not a Caravan of Despair

Maybe he could be allowed back in the human race — maybe he belonged there after all. — Robert was in the truck again, driving to another little town looking for Smith, as he’d done almost every night since he and Cynthia found the things in Maylin’s room. Despite the horror and certainty that Smith had planned to get to their little girl almost from the start, Robert…

Loss

9 min read

Ours is Not a Caravan of Despair
Ours is Not a Caravan of Despair
Loss

9 min read


Jun 2, 2021

Maylin and the Tunnel of Love

Vertical Girl | Horizontal Girl — Dead Inside Girl / — The sewing needle had its own hole through the leather of her wallet, like a prowler’s tool that unlocked her skin. It came from her mother’s pincushion, a stalk among the steel Cyclopes. But she had another use for it. Maylin lay in Smith’s musty bed, occasionally flicking the ants…

Fiction

3 min read

Maylin and the Tunnel of Love
Maylin and the Tunnel of Love
Fiction

3 min read


Apr 16, 2021

the duvet cover

A poem — It was many years before I got it — how to properly button the duvet cover so the buttons hid inside, how it was done with right sides together. I let the hem gape, the comforter drool at the foot of the bed. When I blocked his view of the TV, my father used to say “You make a better door than a window.” I thought, why is it better to be a window? And what is a better door? Should I be that or a better window?

Poetry

1 min read

the duvet cover
the duvet cover
Poetry

1 min read


Mar 27, 2021

Trying to Forgive You

Forgiveness was a process, not a place. Part of her was part-way there but she was not whole. — Excerpt from a novel in progress This morning Cynthia longed for the escape and restoration of sleep. She never got enough. She had a headache and the lingering pull of a dream: a horse galloped toward her in a snowy paddock, slowed, and skidded to a stop. It stood, breathing…

Fiction

3 min read

Trying to Forgive You
Trying to Forgive You
Fiction

3 min read


Dec 20, 2020

Local history

A chapter from a novel-in-progress — So they drifted apart, maybe pushed by currents beyond Leah’s control, but really, Leah had chosen it. Just as she had stopped making an effort to see or talk to Cynthia, she had also stopped shadowing Smith and Robert and trying to solve Maylin’s mystery. But she had not been…

Fiction

8 min read

Local history
Local history
Fiction

8 min read


Dec 4, 2020

Goose in the Snow

a poem — Yesterday, far across the stubbled winter field, I saw the black periscoped neck of a lone Canada goose. I watched from my window as it settled and resettled and checked through the daylight hours to see if would fly. I told myself, let nature take its course. In the morning, when it was light enough to look, I peered through binoculars and hoped to find the looping neck— afraid to see it crumpled in the snow.

Poetry

1 min read

Goose in the Snow
Goose in the Snow
Poetry

1 min read


Nov 12, 2020

Her Body

Her body doesn’t know the season. First hot, then cold, then much too hot, and she is flinging the back door open, fanning her shirt from neck and chest, uttering “Ugh!” “Oh!” “Uhh!” It is October, 66º in the house and 44º outside. She sits at the desk wearing short…

Women

3 min read

Her Body
Her Body
Women

3 min read

Patti Witten

Patti Witten

159 Followers

Writer, songwriter, essayist; novel-in-progress. pattiwittenauthor.com

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