Writing Toward Home

Here is a personal and compassionate book for everyone writers, poets, teachers, lovers of life, and especially those seeking to find their writing voices again or for the first time. It is an autobiographical travelogue moving from a volcano in Hawaii to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and places in between, with writing at its heart. Writing Toward Home offers practical advice on overcoming some of the obstacles writers of all ages face: writer's block, fear of rejection, confronting silencing critics in your head, finding the time to write. Each short chapter speaks to the larger truths about writing and how to truly live the writer's life: how to become more of a risk taker, how to excavate the past as a source, and how to become an acute observer of the world. Writing Toward Home is a book that will remind you-and help you remind your students-that the true source of writing is the creative self. In this fast culture when most people have so little time to do anything but menial tasks, it will jumpstart you, it will awaken to you the journey within, it will make you want to write.

"Fascinating…Eby lyrically uncovers a bit of the magic that makes a Southern writer Southern." —Josh Steele, Entertainment Weekly What is it about the South that has inspired so much of America’s greatest literature? And why do we think of the authors it influenced not just as writers, but as Southern writers? In South Toward Home, Margaret Eby goes in search of answers to these questions, visiting the stomping grounds of ten Southern authors, including William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Truman Capote, Harper Lee, and Flannery O’Connor. Combining biographical detail with expert criticism, Eby delivers a rich and evocative tribute to the literary South.

Writing is a doorway to our most creative, spiritual self. Writing and Being approaches writing at the source of the process and then, with guided personal writing, leads us outward to meaningful and authentic public writing.With powerful, practical step-by-step writing exercises and a plethora of examples, Writing and Being demonstrates that journaling is the most profound way that we can discover our authentic selves. But beyond mere diary writing, the new-found clarity through Nelson's journaling methods help us chart a path for a better future. Nelson begins by providing tips for the logistics of journal keeping, and includes suggestions for getting started. He then explores the entire writing processand explains the distinctions between private writing and public writing. By shedding light on the relationship between meditation and writing, he shows the value of being nonjudgmental and having "soft eyes" and a beginner's mind.Nelson also explains the biology behind the powerful experience of journaling by laying out recent discoveries of the human brain, and shows how journaling can heal psychological and spiritual wounds. Lastly, he shows how journaling is not only a voyage of self-discovery, but through expanding the private writing process can become a means of sharing one's life.

"James Kibler understands that traditional stories endure because they are always new; they furnish the joys both of discovery and of rediscovery." --Fred Chappell, North Carolina poet laureate Acutely aware of lifetimes of missed opportunities and mistakes, the characters in James Everett Kibler's new novel unconsciously hold on to a persistent hope. Walking Toward Home presents snapshots of small-town people as they continue to care for the living while mourning the dead in ways that are not uniquely Southern, but universal in purpose. The magnetism of the local country store attracts a diverse group of neighbors who tell stories and impart wisdom that was earned the hard way. Walking Toward Home is set on the banks of the Tyger River in South Carolina, an area the author himself calls home. The trials and triumphs of Chauncey Doolittle and his friends and family are intimately shared among the members of their close community. Chauncey engages in a symbiotic relationship with both the land and the people of his home. He and his neighbors--cousin Kildee, who owns the local country store; Triggerfoot Tinsley, an independent cuss who gets into hilarious scrapes; and the two widow cousins who fish all day--are Southern eccentrics with a flair for the philosophical. Kibler's humor and poignancy are enhanced by the novel's lyrical language, which evokes the rhythm and music of Southern speech. The characters' stories of faith and mystery become a celebration of the world that has knocked them down but not completely out.

This book provides you with all the tools you need to write an excellent academic article and get it published.

A hundred years ago, Margaret Deland was a top American author on par with Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, or Thomas Hardy. She rubbed elbows with presidents and became a prominent member of Boston Society. But she is also a study in contradictions and almost unknown today. This Civil War era orphan raised by old school Presbyterians became an independent, self-made woman during Victorian times. She captures the struggles of nineteenth century women in her novels; she took unwed mothers into her home but declined to join the suffragette movement. Her literary success did not deter her from assisting soldiers in Europe during World War I or mingling with persons of very diverse backgrounds and faiths. But beneath an interesting life and career is a deep study and questioning of beliefs. A quest for objective confirmation of an afterlifeespecially after the death of her beloved husband Lorinled her into contact with mediums, psychical research and spiritualism. This in-depth and very personal biography reveals how relevant Margarets life, work, and ultimate insights are to our own.

"Fascinating…Eby lyrically uncovers a bit of the magic that makes a Southern writer Southern." —Josh Steele, Entertainment Weekly What is it about the South that has inspired so much of America’s greatest literature? And why do we think of the authors it influenced not just as writers, but as Southern writers? In South Toward Home, Margaret Eby goes in search of answers to these questions, visiting the stomping grounds of ten Southern authors, including William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Truman Capote, Harper Lee, and Flannery O’Connor. Combining biographical detail with expert criticism, Eby delivers a rich and evocative tribute to the literary South.

As the amount of curriculum in today’s classrooms expands and teaching time seems to shrink, teachers are looking for ways to integrate content area and writing instruction. In this revised and expanded edition of Writing Across the Curriculum, Shelley Peterson shows teachers how to weave writing and content area instruction together in their classrooms. The author provides practical and helpful ideas for classroom teachers and content-area specialists to easily incorporate writer’s workshop while teaching in their subject area. New features in this second edition include: • Websites that can be used to teach writing (e.g., wiki’s, weblogs, and digital storytelling) • Examples from grades 4-8 classrooms that show how science, social studies, health, and mathematics teachers can also be teachers of poetry, narrative, and non-narrative writing • New assessment scoring guides • Information on working with struggling writers and supporting English Language Learners • Graphic organizers, templates, and mini-lessons that engage students in learning