Member Spotlight: Clifford N. Rosenthal

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? For more than 40 years, I worked in nonprofits and community organizations, building and supporting cooperatives. After retiring, I had the time and passion to reflect on my life’s work. I was trained as a historian, and I believe documenting and interpreting the history of movements is a necessary condition for understanding the present. Writing is essential to capturing the complexity and nuances of past events.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I have found that you can’t push the river. Sometimes, “you just don’t feel like writing.” I tell myself that the desire is not forever gone, your desire and your voice will return. Don’t force it, and don’t beat yourself up! Faced with a temporary block today, I walked in the park and sat on my favorite bench, listened to music, and watched humanity go by.

What is your favorite time to write? The morning, after a decent interval of slowly growing alertness–roughly, 9:30 to noon.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? All of us have a story, something to say. There is no writing so perfect that it would not benefit from editing. I (half-facetiously) advised my staff that 17 rewrites is about right (i.e., that’s what I do).

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? The multiplicity of venues and modes of getting your writing out in the world.

Clifford N. Rosenthal’s Community Development Finance: COVID, George Floyd, and the Fight for Equity, 2016-2025, co-written by Dana Archer-Rosenthal.