Few have done more to create community than Dolly Parton. This week, the Crü lament her loss by singing (not literally; you're welcome) her praises. We explore what inspired Dolly's songwriting, her philanthropy, and her enduring commitment to children's literacy. Then we try our own hand at creative writing and flash fiction inspired by her songs.

Our writing prompts include 9 to 5, Love Is Like a Butterfly, Two Doors Down, Wildflowers, and Blue Smoke. Song links are included if you're interested (and you should be interested).

Inspired by Dolly's work promoting children's literacy, some of us even try writing stories for children. SOME of us didn't get the memo (cough Murph cough and also PC).

The original stories begin around 21:40.

Whether you're a Dolly Parton fan, or someone who's about to be a Dolly fan but maybe doesn't know it yet, we have something for you here.

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you write along, which we hope you will do.

Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.

To close out Season 5 (that's five, Murph!) The Crü each returned to a different story or poem they wrote throughout the season. We talk about the revision process (and how it changes for prose vs poetry); what we've learned over the course of the season and our different experiments (WebEater's outlining, PC and Murph's long-form pieces broken up by prompts); and, of course, where we're going next.

And, as always, we share and discuss our own work.

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you write along, which we hope you will do.

Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.

This week, Spud leads The Crü down the winding rabbit hole of Roland Barthes' famous essay, The Death of the Author. We delve into a healthy debate over whether or not authorial intent actually matters, and how that answer changes if it's a reader asking it vs. a literary critic. Who decides what a story means, and can that meaning change over time?

Then, of course, we share our own stories based around the week's prompt, and promptly (no pun intended) discuss the author's intent, leading to a weird Hegelian dialectic on the topic. From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Spondulicks. A slang term for money, dating from the mid-19th century. Its origins are uncertain: one suggestion is Greek spondulikos, the name of a type of shell used as an early form of money.

Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you write along, which we hope you will do.

Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.