Larry F. Sommers is a writer bent on seeking fresh meanings in our common past.
He is the author of Freedom’s Purchase, an unpublished novel of immigration, adaptation, and the pursuit of happiness in Civil War America and is revising a second novel, Dizzy Hope, a coming-of-age story featuring 12-year-old Izzy Mahler in the 1950s.
He won Honorable Mention in the 2018 Great American Story Contest for “The Lion’s Den,” and has published similar reminiscence stories in the online version of The Saturday Evening Post.
He edited The Congregationalist, a national quarterly magazine, from 2009 to 2016 and previously worked 23 years for the State of Wisconsin as a writer, editor, photographer, writing coach, and public affairs consultant.
Larry’s weekly blog at LarryFSommers.com is filled with reflections on Past and Present, Spirit and Faith, Story and Narrative, Writing and Writers and is also a display board for first drafts of short stories.
“I seek a new understanding of ourselves and our world, leaping out as if by miracle from retrospective writing,” he says. “Reflective readers of all descriptions may hope for something true and enduring. My stories simply aim to supply whisperings from the past for the nourishment of readers’ hearts in the struggle of life.”
He loves Strunk and White, the Chicago Manual of Style, and the serial comma.
