Seeing the World as a Writer Sees It
Trade Paperback
272 pages
$16.95
Title: MFA in a Box
Subtitle: A Why to Write Book
Author: John Rember
Publisher: Dream of Things
ISBN 978-0-9825794-2-8
“What makes [this book] different than the many, many books about writing on the market today is the way Rember engages his readers in some of the issues every writer faces — writing about place, about family, about grief — not as problems to be overcome but as issues to be understood.” –Jeff Baker, Book Editor, The (Portland) Oregonian
“MFA in a Box should be on every writer’s bookshelf.” –Randy Richardson, author of Lost in the Ivy, President of the Chicago Writers Association
“Witty, audacious, and wise, John Rember’s MFA in a Box is a unique and valuable book….You’ll be enthralled. And walk away a more astute and vibrant writer.” –Robin Metz, author of Unbidden Angel, winner of the Rainer Maria Rilke International Poetry Award, and Director of the Program in Creative Writing at Knox College
“The essential truths about excellent writing.” – The Judges of the Hoffer Awards
“For writers and teachers searching for rejuvenation of their work and affirmation of it, this book is a sacred read.”– Renee D’Aoust, author of Body of a Dancer
“If you are ready to plunge into the depths of your writer’s soul and uncover the secrets that you might be holding back, then MFA in a Box could change the whole way you think about the process of writing.” – Sharon Harrigan, author, poet, journalist, Walking on the Highway
If your adult child is living in your basement, claiming to be a writer…
If you’ve thought you don’t need no stinking MFA…
If you’ve been banned from your writing group…
YOU NEED THIS BOOK!
By exploring the relationship between the writer and love, grief, place, family, race and violence, John Rember helps you see how to go deep in your writing. He also tells you what you’ll find there and how to get back. Along the way, you’ll learn how to see the world as a writer sees it.
“If you have real talent,” says Rember, “and choose to go it alone without learning from all of the thousands of writers who have gone before you, for a long time you’re going to write like Grandma Moses paints.” MFA in a Box will help you take language from translucency to transparency, and make your readers feel like you’ve written for them alone.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
John Rember is unafraid to stare down life’s big questions, but does so always with a twinkle in the eye. Like the fool in King Lear’s court, he will rap you on the noggin with a truth so sweet it hurts. If you don’t close his book somehow transformed, you may well be un-transformable, and should consider donating yourself to a nearby astrophysics lab. John demonstrates time and again what it means to write as a fully engaged human being, teaching along the way that deep writing is deep living, and profound fun.
MFA in a Box offers no less a premise than this: Your writing can change the world. John Rember says: “When I begin working with a new writing student, I tell her: ‘You’re going to be a witness for mute and suffering people who lack your ability to perceive.’” He continues: “The writing needs to cross a threshold into a deep and painful place. You don’t have to live there, but you have to be able to go there. And you have to be able to get back.”
MFA in a Box is your travel guide for this treacherous and necesssary artistic journey. It will help you go deeper in your writing, push past taboos, be unafraid to reveal secrets, explore the full violence of a story’s conflict, and confront the “now” in your writing.
Maybe not a book for the faint-hearted writer . . . unless you want to stop being faint-hearted. Rember’s got some good stuff for you here.
Rarely will you find a teacher who is so wise and yet open every new nuance of the world, including the life journey and perceptions of his students. He is an exemplary leader in the literary world, full of the teachings of the past as well as the present. He was my instructor at Pacific and this book includes many of the essays he shared there. Enjoy, and feel heartened to write. John has done that for many, many people.
The best book I’ve read on why to write. Deep. Wise. Thoughtful. Informative. Hilarious. Almost every sentence is highlighted.