Creative Colloquy asks you, dear reader, to consider why you read and write. Why do we take up the pen or tentatively turn page after page of our dog-eared books, if not to build community, compassion and empathy where there was none before? Why allow ourselves to get lost in the beauty and mystery of stories when "real life" awaits us beyond the dust jacket? The answer is simple: our words give us hope. Hope that a world where barriers we've built...