The release is the stage when writers share the soul of their project-its gift. Here's how to thrive and best serve your work once the writing is done.

In The Release, award-winning author and teacher Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew invites writers to lift their heads out of the product-oriented sandbox and find an alternative way to play. By returning writers to their original delight and guiding them in an ongoing creative practice, Andrew helps form habits of mind, heart, and body to support a project's final flourishing, free from the burdens of seeking validation and measuring worth.

With the same skill and compassion she brought to her other resources for writers-Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir and Living Revision: A Writer's Craft as Spiritual Practice-Andrew writes with deep empathy for the emotional journey when a work is done, through celebration and grief, decisions around publication, the angst of receiving negative feedback or rejection, and the sometimes surprising challenges that come with success.

Anyone-amateurs and professionals alike, those who intend to publish and those who do not, those with book-length manuscripts and those with haiku written on paper scraps-can do this practice. This book is for anyone who wants to release their work with love.

About the Author

Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is the author of Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir and Living Revision: A Writer's Craft as Spiritual Practice, winner of a Nautilus Award. Her memoir, Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Memoir of Bisexuality & Spirit, is now in its second edition.

Reviews

"I'm a major fan of this book and believe it will offer sustenance, guidance, relief, challenge, a healthier way forward, and a route to healing for many writers. This was the book I needed so long ago and the book that can change my trajectory." -Mona Susan Power, author of Council of Dolls and Grass Dancer

"Whenever I have lost my way as a writer, Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew arrives as a trusted companion. Whether I'm drafting new material, revising, or sending my work out in the world, I can always find just the right words I need to hear in Andrew's books. I've recommended her writing guides to countless students in my two decades as a creative writing professor, and always they respond with immense gratitude for her insights." -Brenda Miller, author of Tell it Slant: Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction and The Pen and the Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World

"Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is not only an author you should read but a teacher you can trust." -Barbara Brown Taylor, author of An Altar in the World and Leaving Church

"This book is like a wise friend-it energized me to think more broadly about what my work is in my life and in my relationships, and it expanded my thinking around the unexpected ways that my writing can interact with the wider world." -Annika Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Most Eligible Billionaire

"The Release gave me a much broader and more loving way to approach publishing." -Carolyn Holbrook, author of Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify

Book Information
ISBN 9781558969285
Author Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Skinner House Books
Publisher Skinner House Books