I feel honored to be the featured writer for this issue of the Green Blade. Too few are aware of the good quiet work––and play––that has been going on at The Writers' Center in Plainview, where for several years now people from various places in southern Minnesota have gathered to practice the writing arts. The Green Blade is just one of The Writing Center's accomplishments, the result of conscientious work done by a group of people committed to a cooperative exploration of what good writing is and to the reaffirmation of the importance of rural and small town America.

- Emilio DeGrazia, author of Walking on Air in a Field of Greens, Seasonings, among numerous other titles

The Green Blade is unusual in that many of the pieces published in it have been read at monthly readings held at the Rural America Writers' Center in Plainview, Minnesota. Something of a sense of place and community of writers comes into being as those of us who have attended the Plainview readings can sometimes hear the Green Blade authors in their own voices as we read the magazine. Those voices give character and clarity to the printed pieces and deepen priceless relationships among writers.

- Dean Harrington, curator of Rural America Arts Partnership

Recently moving to Rochester from the Chicagoland area, I needed to find a place that satisfied my intellectual and emotional writing needs, so I reached out to The Rural America Writers' Center. The RAWC is a great place to both attend and participate. It's an intimate atmosphere that gets you face to face with local and regional authors and peers allowing writers to ask questions ranging from the craft to the business of getting published. And of course, it's a great place to tell stories.

- Ender Göçmen, attendee of Third Wednesday Reading Series