Hello and Welcome to Sitting in Silence, the newsletter about joy, writing, craft, and worry. One thing I love about teaching creative writing is how so many students come to it from a place of love. They grew up reading, which was perhaps unusual in their families. They probably kept a journal. They started writing little stories and someone along the way told them they were really good at it. And they loved it. They loved their children’s books and historical novels. They loved feeling of lying in a hammock or by a pool and entering someone else’s world. They adored being read to by their mother or father. And then they got the bug to make their own stories, their own worlds. But were they ready write?
Thank you for, as always, a beautiful essay with an important message. When my new book launches in NOLA in October (the fruit of a rocky, weedy garden I stubbornly tended for eight years) I hope I’ll get to meet you!!
YES. I could see so much of this, feel so much of the sun and soil and love. As I embark on a creative sabbatical from teaching (I, too, love the energy of creative writing students who are beaming with adoration and awe for literary art), I'm working in the garden of my essay drafts. Watering and wiping down the leaves of essays from the collection that have since been published. Tilling the soil and dropping seeds for essay drafts I have yet to start and pruning drafts that have grown wild and unwieldy since I've tended to them last. I appreciate the encouragement. Much love, Maurice!
Thank you for, as always, a beautiful essay with an important message. When my new book launches in NOLA in October (the fruit of a rocky, weedy garden I stubbornly tended for eight years) I hope I’ll get to meet you!!
Congratulations on your book!
Thanks, Sheree!!!
Thanks, Marlene! i hope to meet you. 🌟
I’ll be at the LA Book Fest with my new book and look forward to seeing you receive your well deserved award!
YES. I could see so much of this, feel so much of the sun and soil and love. As I embark on a creative sabbatical from teaching (I, too, love the energy of creative writing students who are beaming with adoration and awe for literary art), I'm working in the garden of my essay drafts. Watering and wiping down the leaves of essays from the collection that have since been published. Tilling the soil and dropping seeds for essay drafts I have yet to start and pruning drafts that have grown wild and unwieldy since I've tended to them last. I appreciate the encouragement. Much love, Maurice!
Thank you for reading, Sheree. enjoy your time!
This was so nice to read. I look forward to hearing all about the honors your work has received lately.
Thank you so much, Erin!
🙏🏽