6-minute Stories

Jennifer M. Szescula feels most at home surrounded by trees and mountains. She has written voraciously her whole life, sharing in bursts of enthusiasm (thanks to Winston Salem Writers!) along with decades of silence. Though she desires to write fiction, her natural voice is found writing about the everyday moments and challenges of being human. She is always trying something new-which gives her eternal writing material.

Mark Marshall moved to Nashville in 1977 from his home state of West Virginia. He has worked mostly as a career coach where he has gotten to hear and share stories with thousands of people from every conceivable walk of life. He now works in private practice and as a career coach at UpRise Nashville. He’s also a member of The River Writers. Much of his writing draws upon how growing up in Richwood, West Virginia, a small lumber and mining town deep in the West Virginia mountains, has shaped his life. 

Jon Kesler lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Martha, and his Chocolate Lab, Rooster. As an organization development consultant, Jon has made a career of studying people as individuals and how they interact in groups. Writing for his own enjoyment and the entertainment of others, Jon strives to bring his characters to life through the exploration of personality quirks and the underlying dynamics of what makes people tick in the day-to-day realities of life.

Edith Gettes has worked as a professional violinist, teacher, and psychiatrist. Her most important and inspiring employment, however, has been raising four daughters. She has lectured about learning, trauma and motherhood at several international conferences, and her writing has appeared in both musical and medical journals. Edith currently lives, works, plays, and writes in Asheville, North Carolina, where she remains fascinated by our capacity for love and beauty in the face of profound challenges.

Arlene Mandell is an artist living in Linville, North Carolina, proudly celebrating her 10th year at Carlton Gallery in Banner Elk. (carltongallery.com/arlene-mandell). A native New Yorker, relocating to the Blue Ridge Mountains with Captain Dan ignited a passion to write. Her “6-minute Stories” podcasts include: “Eye of the Dolphin,” “Artist Borne,” “Gobsmacked in the Gulfstream,” “Renegade Daughter,” “It Started with a Typo,” “Shopping for the Homeless,” “Thirteen Candles in the Dark,” “The Promise of Romance,” “At Five & Ninety-Five, Mother Was a Star,” and “In the Heart of Trauma.”

Nick Sipe lives in Gastonia, North Carolina, with his alpha reader wife and 2 beta reader kids. He is a member of the Charlotte Writers Club and NC Writers’ Network. He enjoys the giddy thrill of sneaking into college libraries to write while his kids are at sports practice. Currently, Nick is querying literary agents for his debut novel, Midnight Springs, a horror Western best described as Frankenstein Goes West.

Thomas Gery, a common man with uncommon experiences lives in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He served in the U.S. Army with duty in Vietnam. As a social worker he helped children, youth, and adults in a variety of practice venues and situations throughout a work life of 40 years. Married with two adult children and two grandchildren, he is currently writing his life’s story to provide answers to questions his kids will never ask. His first essay appeared in Personal Story Publishing Project—Lost & Found, 2023. 

Bill Donohue is a Winston Salem writer who has chronicled many of his family’s medical speed bumps. Recognizing his own aging leaks, rusts, and mold, this story is the first capture of his newest frailty and the beginning of his journey with cancer.

Robin Russell Gaiser, MA, CMP, holds degrees in English literature and psychology and a certificate in therapeutic music. She has published two books, Musical Morphine: Transforming Pain One Note at a Time (Pisgah Press: 2016) and Open for Lunch (Pisgah Press: 2018) and numerous short stories, poetry, and narrative non-fiction. She is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist as well as creator of Appalachian folk art. Her three children and their spouses, plus five grandchildren live coast to coast. She and her husband, Gordon, live in Asheville, NC. www.robingaiser.com

Wanda Freeman lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. She is an award-winning writer, editor, and journalist whose literary work has appeared in The MacGuffin (Schoolcraft College, Livonia, Michigan) and Cellar Roots (Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti). She grew up in New Orleans, where she learned to cook and second-line. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of New Orleans and a master’s degree in creative writing from EMU. She is a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network and enjoys performing her work at open mic events.