Estelle Erasmus

As Alzheimer’s disease lowers its veil over my father, one of the few ways to penetrate through his fog is music. Luckily, he prepared for that decades ago by encouraging my love of singing. As a child, I was classically trained as an opera singer. My career took me in the direction of words rather than music, so these days I sing just for friends and family, which has turned out to be surprisingly useful in connecting with my father.
Until recently my octogenarian parents, who liv...

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The other day my 11-year-old told me how “bored” she is. I get it. School just ended and her beloved sleep-away camp has been canceled.

Joe Biden Debuts Education Plan, Then Touts It to Teachers’ Union
Mr. Biden promoted the plan, the first policy of his campaign, at a town-hall event with the American Federation of Teachers in Houston on Tuesday.

Most college students have been stuck at home with the rest of us. Even with much of the country reopening in phases, most colleges are taking a wait and see approach, with many forgoing in person classes altogether and opting to continue education with remote learning.
So some go-to-choices college kids used to do to make ends meet or get a little extra spending money from (ride sharing driver, tour guide, event planning) aren’t feasible in this new normal. What’s an enterprising young perso...

I teach my writing students for New York University that you should never give up when it comes to getting an editor’s attention. If you want to be a freelance writer, a good pitch letter with a great spin on a topic, timely element, newsy connection or unusual personal experience is a great first step toward getting that assignment.
I asked several writers for their recommendations as you ask yourself these key questions that will take you through the pitching and submission process.
Have Yo...

I’m a big believer in getting paid for what you are worth, and negotiating for it whether you are doing it in a job, a side hustle or a freelance gig.
You can negotiate your rates, better terms for assignments, better contracts and rates, rights, payment and more authority in any process.
As a writing coach, I teach my students it’s important when dealing with editors to ask “do you have any wiggle room to go higher?” You never know. Sometimes, the answer is yes. I’ve gotten as much as $50 mo...

William Dameron is the author of his 2019 debut memoir: The Lie: A Memoir of Two Marriages, Catfishing & Coming Out, named A New York Times Editor’s Choice, and One of the Best LGBTAQ Memoirs of 2019 by The Advocate Magazine.
For Bill, writing is a highly successful side hustle: he can boast bylines in The New York Times NYT , The Boston Globe, Salon, and The Huffington Post. In his day job, he is an IT Director for a global economic consulting firm, where he educates users on the perils of s...

The summer my daughter turned five, I noticed that she came on strong with new friends. She followed them around, sometimes reaching out for her pals' hands, then becoming upset if they pulled away. After one such incident, I hugged my frustrated little one.
"Listen, honey, " I said. "Not everyone will like you. And that's ok."
"Don't grab her hand again," I said. "Just tell her, 'it's fine,' then walk away."
After a few role-playing sessions where we took turns being the rejecting friend, my...

As a widely published writing coach, NYU writing professor, and assigning editor, my current and former students have been sending me pitches, op-eds and essays about why they are “breaking the rules of quarantine.” Sometimes they offer the justification that they have health, mental or emotional issues, and that’s why the rules shouldn’t apply…not to them.
In the midst of this crisis, it’s not the time for writers to grasp for splashy pieces founded on flaunting their ethical failures or ill...

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My stuck-at-home 11-year-old spends her off-school hours on the online game platform Roblox. As screen time goes, it’s a pretty safe, kid-friendly and creative option, since with parental controls I’m able to lock down her privacy (that means no chats, ever).
But she resists screen time limits, argues about getting off Roblox to do chores and tries to push her bedtime later every night. She is worried about not being able to go back to sleep-away camp this summer. And annoyed tha...

Eighteen-year-old Ava McDonald is doubly excited. On a personal level, not only is she about to attend Georgetown University in the Fall, on a professional level she is also about to launch her Summer 2020 Campus Marketing Program for Zfluence, the company she launched in March 2019, while attending high school.
Ava’s mission is to add authenticity to the $10 billion Instagram advertising economy by focusing on the genuine brand passion of Generation Z.
The company, which has had a rapid grow...

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Before COVID, anxiety lay on my chest like an elephant as I worried who my daughter was friends with, whether anyone was being a mean girl, whether her friends’ moms were safe drivers, whether sick kids were showing up in school, whether boys were being too physical during gym, and on. Sheltering in place has moved all these worries offstage.
Instead, there is an invisible, silent enemy beyond the walls of our home, and the hardships are about the absence of those relationships, ...

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“I don’t want to hurt your feelings, Mom, but I don’t want you picking out my clothes anymore,” my very independent 10-year-old daughter announced recently. “We have different taste, and yours isn’t good for me.”
Her in-your-face delivery has the tone of an athlete taunting someone on a rival sports team. When did I become her opponent?
This is the same kid who often asks me for snuggle time and kisses me on the cheeks like an out-of-control woodpecker while wildly prof...

As the host/curator of the podcast for the American Society of Journalists and Authors called ASJA Direct: Inside Intel on Getting Published and Paid Well (a free ASJA member benefit), I’ve interviewed dozens of editors from Kyle Pope of the Columbia Journalism Review, to Donna Talarico, of HippocampusMagazine (a literary publication), to James Taranto, of the Wall Street Journal to Beth Dreher, Features Director for Woman’s Day.
I’ve also been the magazine editor-in-chief for five national c...

In this interview, screenwriter Michael Zam offers screenwriting tips for beginners and veterans, and discusses his success with the Emmy award-winning FX series Feud: Bette and Joan, starring Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Stanley Tucci and more.
Michael Zam, is an award-winner screenwriter, and popular film instructor at New York University. He also teaches theater studies in London. Zam and his writing partner, Jaffe Cohen, wrote and sold a screenplay that became Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Bette ...