Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop

Au Revoir, Dayton

“Comparison is the thief of joy, Mom.” The nerve of this kid. Even as I basked in the glow of being selected as an Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, the fruit of my loins had written an essay of his own. I was excitedly preparing for the singular opportunity to hole… Read More

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

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

Swaddle Me in Terry Cloth

“Let’s face it: I’d rejoice if I had a wobbly table in a leaky cabin all to myself for two weeks,” 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. “Virginia Woolf believed that access to a room of one’s… Read More