Anna Lefler

Fluffy Robes and Prose

By day, Kara Kinney Cartwright is a legal editor from North Potomac, Maryland, but her superpower is “trying to save the world with punchy humor about unwritten social rules and expectations.” A widowed mother, she’s writing a book “for grieving Gen-X and Millennial women who would sooner cut their own bangs than seek advice for… Read More

Wallow in Words

“Who wouldn’t want this honor because Erma is the G.O.A.T.,” one writer wrote in a pitch to be selected for A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program. All applicants told us they thirst for a block of uninterrupted time to lock themselves in a hotel room and write. “My… Read More

May We Introduce Our Judges?

We have lined up dozens of remarkable authors, bloggers and humorists to review and rank the 2023 entries in A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program. The judges, all established writers, will narrow the field for final judging by improvisor Dion Flynn, best known as Barack Obama (and other… Read More

Entertainers Extraordinaire

Improvisor Dion Flynn, best known as Barack Obama (and other characters) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and comedy writer Monica Piper, head writer for the #1 children’s animated series Rugrats, will select two humor writers for a fun, unconventional writing residency that promises winners the gift of time to hole up in a hotel, write —… Read More

Two Words: Clean Towels

“Two words: clean towels,” one writer wrote in a pitch to be selected for A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program. The University of Dayton’s Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop is once again offering two emerging humor writers the opportunity to compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to Dayton, Ohio… Read More

Dear Erma

Dear Erma, I once met a woman whose #1 bucket list item was to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in person. Tears streamed down her face as I snapped her photo in front of it. Some people might dream of living in Paris, or owning a 1965 Shelby Mustang, or doing the Lord’s work and… Read More