David Biespiel cracks open the creative process as he candidly tracks his own development as a writer and challenges traditional assumptions about writing that can stifle creativity. The liberating message: Working past the brink of failure--being free to try and discard and try again--is what allows the creative process to playfully flourish, keeping the spirit open to unexpected discoveries. Both beginning and experienced writers—as well as artists, musicians, dancers, and anyone else on a creative path—will benefit from this elegant, surprising, and fresh perspective.
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"Finally, an anti-bullshit book on creativity!"
— James Marcus
"Does for the creative process what Strunk and White did for our approach to grammar and style. Indispensable."
— Marjorie Sandor
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"Every Writer Has a Thousand Faces instead of the advice de rigueur, is a well-spring of ideas for how to jump start the creative process, valuable examples of athletic and visual artists who exercise this proposed method, and, perhaps most importantly, oodles of empathy for the writer and artist who is battling their own stuck process and potentially self-doubt or frustration."
— Hazel & Wren
Long Journey
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award
A first of its kind anthology in the Pacific Northwest, Long Journey showcases work by over 80 of the Northwest's leading poets.
Of the nearly two hundred poems collected in this remarkable anthology — the first of its kind for the Northwest — most are new and previously unpublished, providing readers with a fresh look at the state of contemporary poetry in the region.
David Biespiel's goal in compiling Long Journey was to produce "an early twenty-first-century snapshot of how various and engaging this region's poetry is," a record of what poets living in the Northwest are working on right now. Featuring poets from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana.
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"David Biespiel challenges provincialism—namely, that this corner of the country is too isolated from the centers of literary life to produce art that matters. "
— Willamette Week
"Compelling collection knows no bounds."
— Seattle Times
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*****
Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets
Oregon State University Press
2006