Six publications for aspiring essayists to bookmark
Where I go on the web to read nonfiction that expands my understanding of what essays are and what they can do.
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books
5 books to read this fall
Fall 2023 book recommendations—because go ahead, buy more books!
Beyond a Book Review: Grief and Hope in All We Are Told Not to Touch
Why do we write? How do we navigate grief? What gives us hope?
Beyond a Book Review: Once Upon a Time in Dovelion
Read Shawna's review of a novel with a built-in writing prompt for you to try.
Beyond a Book Review: Narrators and Compassion in Finding La Negrita
Shawna Ayoub highlights the technique of using multiple narrators to foster compassion in a story, and offers an exercise so you can practice doing the same.
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Show your Pride with these summer reads
In honor of Pride month, we encourage you to buy books by LGBTQIA authors from LGBTQIA-owned independent bookstores, starting with these five selections in various genres.
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Beyond a Book Review: Research as connection in Through the Banks of the Red Cedar
Shawna Ayoub moves "beyond the book review" in not only recommending great books by diverse writers, but highlighting a technique to apply to your own writing.
Book recommendation: A Friend Sails in on a Poem
The clear takeaway, the living arc of this book, is how a love of poetry and a commitment to a writing life, or any artistic life, can bind two people to one another.
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Beyond a Book Review: Intuition in River Woman, River Demon
Shawna Ayoub highlights the strength of character and intuition in Jennifer Givhan's new novel, and offers a writing exercise to help us achieve a similar effect in our own work.
Beyond a Book Review: Unwieldy Creatures and retelling our stories
Shawna Ayoub explores a retelling of a beloved classic and points out how retellings can provide structure and an end point from the start of writing.