In an interview with Lisa Mullins on “Here and Now” a daily program of National Public Radio,  author Anita Harris reflected on how her college years shaped her career path.  The interview, which aired June 11, focused on Harris’s book, Ithaca Diaries, a memoir and social history of her years at Cornell University in the 1960s.

Those years “gave me courage to start a newspaper and become a journalist,” said Harris about her time at Cornell.  “They gave me the courage to fight for social change through my work and my writing.  They have me the courage to work with students and help them understand better their own place in the world.”

Harris attended Cornell University during a time of racism and world turmoil.  In Ithaca Diaries, she writes about heavy topics such as the tearing up and burning of draft cards by students opposed to the Vietnam war and demonstrations for civil rights.

“There were all kinds of demonstrations and eventually all hell broke loose,”said Harris.  “At the university, nationally, and internationally students were demonstrating and even rioting all over the world.”

While Harris tried to focus on her studies and stay “sane,”  she also explored and wrote about Cornell’s dating scene, which was filled with “boys, and frats and football games,” she told Mullins.

Harris used her journals, letters to her parents, and Cornell’s independent student newspaper, the Daily Sun, to help tell her story, which takes readers on a coming-of-age journey from Harris’ arrival on campus  in 1966 with her pink suitcase to her graduation day, when she led a demonstration against the military.

“One reason I wanted to write the book was to understand what had happened and how it still affects me today,” said Harris.  “To this day, I think back to the events of that time.”

“Ithaca Diaries” can be purchased on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Ithaca-Diaries-Coming-Age-1960s/dp/0692294988.

Harris’ “Here and Now” interview  is available at http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/06/11/ithaca-diaries-anita-harris.

— Morgan Brittney Austin
Morgan Brittney Austin is a 2015 graduate of LaSalle College, near Boston.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

My writers group, the Write Stuff, based in LIncoln, MA, Public Library , will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on May 27;  I’m delighted to be joining fellow-members in a public reading from our work at the Library, 3 Bedford Rd, at 7 pm.

The Write Stuff started in fall 2005 as a series of craft sessions led by Jeanne Bracken, then research librarian, to encourage more local writers to contribute to the Lincoln Review, a local publication founded and edited by Elizabeth Smith, of Lincoln.

According to Neil O’Hara, who volunteers as Write Stuff’s facilitator, “It morphed into a critique group over the winter, led by Jeanne through September 2006, when I took over as facilitator.”

WS meets twice a month all year round, typically with four readings of up to 1000 words. All types of writing are welcome: fiction, non-fiction,  poetry, scripts and the like, with no restrictions on content/subject matter, O’Hara said.  There is no charge to join or contribute.

“Our goal is to provide constructive criticism to foster better writing–and it works, as any longstanding member will attest.”  O’Hara says his own writing has improved over the years, which he credits in part to WS, both because members have provided excellent feedback and because, as facilitator, “I feel an obligation to explain both what works and doesn’t work for me—and also why.”

While intent to publish is not a requirement, five Write Stuff members have published books in the last several years. They include: Bracken, Children With Cancer, a comprehensive reference guide for parents,  updated, rev.; Susan Coppock , Fly Away Home;  Anita M. Harris, Ithaca Diaries and Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity 2^nd edition; the Rev. Jean F. Risley, Recovering the Lost Legacy:Moral Guidance for Today’s Christians; and Rick Wiggin, Embattled Farmers: Campaigns and Profiles of Revolutionary Soldiers from Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1775-1783;

In addition to providing members with a safe place to test out their work, the group continues to serve its original purpose, O’Hara says. Today, almost every edition of the Lincoln Review includes contributions from one or more WS members.

Readers on Wednesday will include:

Helen Bowden
Carmela D’Elia
Deborah Dorsey
Anita M. Harris
Joyce Quelch
Jean Risley
Ed Robson
Channing Wagg

The library is a member of the Minuteman Library System,  is a consortium of 43 libraries with 62 locations and a Central Site staff that work collectively to provide excellent service to its library users. The members include 36 public and 7 college libraries in the Metrowest region of Massachusetts..

For more information about the Write Stuff please contact Neil O’Hara: neiloh52 at gmail.com For directions to the library, please check the library home page at http://www.lincolnpl.org.

–Anita M. Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a PR and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

Excited to have been interviewed about Ithaca Diaries by radio personality  extraordinare Lisa Mullins.  A segment is slated to air nationally on NPR’s “Here and Now,”  on Memorial Day, May 25, 2015.  The  program airs live on WGBH Boston from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Both in Boston and elsewhere you can  choose a live stream from WBUR or Click here for a searchable list of public radio stations that broadcast Here & Now.

According to the Here and Now Website, you can also:

Hear individual stories: Audio for stories in the first hour of Here & Now is typically posted by 2:30 p.m. EST. Audio for stories in the second hour is typically posted by 3:30 p.m. EST. You can listen to past shows by browsing or searching the archives.

Hear the whole show: You can stream each hour of Here & Now using the WBUR mobile app. A podcast of each hour is also available in the iTunes store, within hours of its air time (better time estimates coming soon). For more ways to download the podcast (not using iTunes), go here.

About Here and Now:
Here and Now is a live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with public radio stations across the country.  According to its Website, the program reflects the fluid world of news as it’s happening in the middle of the day, with timely, smart and in-depth news, interviews and conversation.

Co-hosted by award-winning journalists Robin Young and Jeremy Hobson, the show’s daily lineup includes interviews with NPR reporters, editors and bloggers, as well as leading newsmakers, innovators and artists from across the U.S. and around the globe.

Here & Now began at WBUR in 1997, and expanded to two hours in partnership with NPR in 2013. Today, the show reaches an estimated 3.6 million weekly listeners on over 383 stations across the country.

About Ithaca Diaries
Ithaca Diaries  is a coming of age memoir set at Cornell University in the tumultuous 1960s. The story is told in first person from the point of view of a smart, sassy, funny, scared, sophisticated yet naïve college student who can laugh at herself while she and the world around her are having a nervous breakdown. Based on Harris’ own journals and letters, interviews and other primary and secondary accounts of the time, Ithaca Diaries describes collegiate life as protests, politics, and violence increasingly engulf the student, her campus, and her nation. Her irreverent observations serve as a prism for understanding what it was like to live through those tumultuous  times.While often laugh-out-loud funny, they provide meaningful insight into the process of political and social change we are continuing to experience, today.

Ithaca DIaries is available from Amazon, Kindle and the Cornell Campus Store.

Anita M. Harris is an award-winning writer, blogger, and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. A new edition of her  first book, Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity, was published in 2014. 

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.

Anita M. Harris

An aspiring author asks if she needs a Website for her new book.

My answer is yes:.the more exposure you can get on the Web the better–so that people searching for you or your topic can find you. But building a website is not for the faint of heart.

Having researched several site-building platforms, I decided to use WordPress to  build this site and  sites for my books,  Ithaca Diaries and Broken Patterns.

I chose WordPress because it seemed to be the simplest option, and you  can build a site a WordPress.com for free.   But I have to say  there was  quite a learning curve. To start with, the free templates are not at all intuitive (nor are the paid ones).

Then I had to decide if I would  pay for my own domain (web address). That is,   a free WordPress site  for New Cambridge Observer would be posted on WordPress.com and have the address  http://newcambridgeobserver.wordpress.com. I opted to pay approximately $12 to purchase the domain name  “New Cambridge Observer,” so that it could have the simpler address  https://newcambridgeobserver.com.  Then, I had to decide if I would pay for hosting at wordpress.com (simple, but limited options to sell from a site there,)  or pay to have it hosted on the server of a company like Godaddy, com..   I chose the latter because it allows more versatility and hosts my multiple sites for approximately $100 a year.

But no matter which building or hosting option you choose,: be aware that once your site or blog is launched, it takes a lot of time and energy to get readers to go there.  You need to understand the ever changing methods of search engine optimization and be very active on social media. And  once you get readers to the site, it’s a challenge to get them to comment or interact.  (To my readers–what gives?)

So, if you want to do it yourself, I’d advise a simple site optimized for SEO, combined with an intense social media plan. . If your goal is to build a community, you should put time, energy and $ into a Web site. If your goal is to sell books, I’d advise  a small site or blog (like this one–I used a free template called “Magazine Basic”).  It’s relatively easy to post   important information and links  that will take readers to Amazon, Kobo or other sites for stores where your books are available. You should also build an author site on Amazon–that’s  easy compared with building a Web site– but you still need to get people to go there.

Good luck!

–Anita M. Harris
Author, Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960s, Cambridge Common Press, 2015)  Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity (Cambridge Common Press, 2014)

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a marketing and PR firm based in Cambridge, MA.

HI! Apologies for my long absence…but am pleased to report that an advance edition of Ithaca Diaries, my new book about college in the 1960s, is (at long last)  available on Amazon–in paperbook and Kindle editions.

The official launch won’t take place for another few weeks, but with the help of my sister, Laura Harris Hirsch and friend Stacy Kaufman, I managed to finish the index and formatting in time for the release of a fabulous writeup in the Cornell University Ezra  Magazine, which came out Dec. 23.

Because the writeup  is not an official “review,” I’m not supposed to quote from it, so suffice it  to say that Ezra’s H. Roger Segelken starts out–“Whenever they went to college, most everyone thinks their undergraduate years were a noteworthy epoch of personal and societal transformation. Not everyone was at Cornell between 1966 and 1970, though, and even fewer kept detailed, heartfelt journals during that turbulent period.”  And, if you’d like,  you can read the rest.

I’m hoping to officially launch the book in mid-January, in time for Cornell’s Boston Sesquicentennial celebration, and am now seeking real reviews (and readers!)

Will be sending autographed copies to Kickstarter supporters early next week–as soon as books arrive on  my doorstep.

You can find more information on the Ithaca Diaries website  and buy the paperback or Kindle edition at  Amazon. The Cornell Store will be carrying the paperback in the near future.

Thanks!

—Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is the author of Ithaca Diaries and Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity. 

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, the award-winning marketing and PR firm Harris  founded in 1998.

Harold Simansky and Skeletom at Cambridge Innovation Center

Pleased to report that, after a stressful month, Harold Simansky’s Kickstarter campaign reached its goal of $25,000. The kickstarter will help fund BTW, a magazine devoted to beautiful, sustainable living.
Here’s a picture of Harold at the Cambridge Innovation Center—sweating it out near my favorite deskmate, SkeleTom (SkeleTom is QUIET!)  With my own Kickstarter (to help fund my forthcoming book, Ithaca Diaries,) still underway, I know that you can  feel like you’re turning into a skeleTom, waiting for contributions to roll in. Congrats to Harold and the BTW team.
–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning marketing and PR firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Kendall Square.

With three days to go, the kickstarter campaign for BTW (Behind the Walls)  –a multi-platform media company devoted to beautiful, healthy, energy efficient and sustainable home, .is 85% funded.  Led by our friend and Cambridge Innovation Center colleague Harold Simansky, BTW needs $3K to get to $25K tor will take in nothing at all. I hope you’ll support the project. Here’s a link to the kickstarter site:

Harold writes:

Environmentally sound, healthy homes can be as stylish as they are sustainable; as beautifully designed as they are responsible; as glam as they are green… and a lot less expensive than you might think.

Now that eco-awareness is (finally and thankfully) skyrocketing, the country has exploded with new ideas for the home—everything from innovative, energy-saving technologies and home automation systems to products, decors, and furnishings that are toxin-free, sustainable and beautiful. Now you can live a green life at home without having to choose between what’s eco-friendly and what’s style-friendly, what’s efficient and what’s expensive.

BTW is here to keep homeowners on the cutting edge, building a community that shares our vision of healthy, energy-efficient and sustainable building and renovation practices, met with beautiful design. We’re also here to educate the community about service providers and funding—in the form of thousands of rebates and incentive programs—to make that possibility a reality. We want to make it clear that living a healthy, energy-efficient, and happy green lifestyle is within reach… and it all begins in the home.

What We Do

We’re creating a vibrant community of forward-thinking homeowners with BTW: Behind the Walls, a multi-platform media company that combines a magazine (both print and online), a website, social media, videos, blog posts, creative events, and—soon to come—podcasts and ecommerce, to help consumers envision and create a new kind of home and lifestyle.

Our goal is to help all homeowners understand, as they undertake some 20 million home improvement projects every year, how to do it more efficiently, more stylishly, greener, and healthier, using the best products, services and funding.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/959029715/btw-the-magazine-of-beautiful-healthy-and-sustaina?ref=home_featured

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and digital marketing firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Cambridge, MA.

Hi! I’m thrilled with the outpouring of support for Ithaca Diaries– including that of current students and recent grads.

Alex Tomasi, a 2014 Boston University communications grad (and race car driver!)  has offered a beautiful, whimsical poster as a new reward–(shown below the cover photo).

You can meet Alex and other 20-something supporters– Erin Euler, Eric Morris (Cornell 2012),  Grant Randall  and Ben Whiting  via their brief You Tube videos….and I hope at the launch party in January.

Any and all contributions welcome–including $1 and $5.  Every little bit helps–and also raises projects in the kickstarter rankings and attracts more views. It would also be great if you’d’ share this email and the kickstarter link on social media.

Here’s the kickstarter link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1639099206/ithaca-diaries-coming-of-age-in-the-1960s.

It does look like we’ll reach the goal soon…which means that Ithaca  Diaries will be available for holiday gift giving. Additional $$ will allow a Kirkus review to let bookstores and libraries know it’s available–and still more will go toward an interactive Web site.

Many many thanks,
Anita M. Harris

Anita M. Harris is a writer and communications consultant in Cambridge, MA.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning public relations and marketing firm, based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.