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Picture a tower of colorful building blocks. In a nursery school, this tower is likely constructed by an adult. A toddler waddles up, thrashes her arms, and the blocks come tumbling down. What fun! Gravity works! In a kindergarten, our tower is likely built by a few diligent five-year-olds. A mischief maker rushes in with a swift kick. Blocks scatter. Crying […]

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Despite publishing openly and widely about so much in my life, you may notice that I rarely write directly about two things: My Christian faith and my politics. I haven’t wanted these divisive topics to limit my opportunities to be in conversation across difference, something I dearly value. That said, my writing career began with […]

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So you’re at the sink, washing up the breakfast dishes when a writing idea pops into your head. It’s brilliant; it blazes through your body. Do you: A) Dismiss it because you can’t do it justice,B) Disregard it because the world’s on fire and there are more important things to do, orC) Heed it and head to the writing desk? […]

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The following list is compiled from readers of my 2024 Year in Books list, which you can read here, and from members of the Eye of the Heart Center for Creative Contemplation’s Writing Community. If you’re looking for fellow readers and writers, I’d love to see you there. Reading means to be ready to catch […]

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I wish I could be again the reader I was at age twelve, when each novel Mrs. Fermin the librarian handed me dependably launched me into a thrilling, expansive realm, after which I’d reenter the junior high halls bearing secrets—more than this grind is possible! Until encountering Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in eighth grade, I had […]

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I’d like to make a confession. On Sunday mornings, I sit in church internally spinning out a reactive, biting critique of the service, how hollow and performative it is, how the sermons charge us to do justice and love kindness and walk humbly without ever addressing how, feeling mightily superior about the vibrancy of my prayer ��

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I’ve heard sculptors say that, when a piece isn’t working, the best way forward isn’t to chip away at the details but rather smash it to the ground. Only devastation will make possible a new vision. Writers do the equivalent. In The Release I relate how, when Benjamin Percy spent two years writing a novel ��

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Unsurprisingly, these days I’ve been pondering the word “release��. Prisoners are released from jail, butterflies are released from cocoons, classified documents are released to the public, singers release their latest albums, and when we weep or rage we release emotions. My favorite definition of release is “to allow something to move, act, or flow freely��; ��

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As I begin the bizarrely self-referential work of releasing The Release, I’m test-driving the teachings I put forward there. Can I really find increasing freedom as I send this book into the world? Can marketing and publicity really be life-giving? Can I sustain writing’s energizing, personally enriching exchange with mystery—the gift economy of the creative process—as ��

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Your writing projects are your babies.  Sometimes you dream about them before conception; sometimes they emerge in a passionate rush.  You raise them with care, patience, frustration, labor, and abiding joy.  Like child-rearing, revision is long, arduous, and meaningful.  Often it seems the kid will never grow up.  Then your baby is grown.  The project is complete—more or less.  It is ��

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