Hello again! This is Author Abroad, a newsletter on reading, writing, and reflections from a life abroad. This month, I’ll be talking about the benefits of a writing community, why August makes me sentimental, and some of the great books I’ve read recently.
Writing
Last month, I wrote about the restorative power of surrounding yourself with other writers—people who share a love of words, sentences, and ideas, and know what it means to be compelled to write. Building and expanding my writing community has continued to be an important theme for me over the last several weeks. While in the US this summer, I was invited to join a new local writers collective, a network of women dedicated to the craft of writing and unified in support of one another as we work to get our stories out into the world. I’ve been looking for a group like this for a long time and am thrilled to be included in this one.
In addition to meeting as a group and connecting with new writer friends one-on-one, some of us have begun to meet in smaller groups to brainstorm beginnings, endings, and other challenges in our writing. I haven’t participated in this kind of exchange since I graduated from my MFA program in 2019 and had forgotten how stimulating (and fun🤩) it can be to engage with another writer’s work. By analyzing the possibilities a piece of writing holds, and exploring together ways to expand and deepen those possibilities, I find that new circuits begin to open up in my own writing brain, helping to improve and inspire the projects I’m working on.
Another benefit to being part of a writing critique group is that it forces me out of that never-ending, internal loop in which I keep tinkering with the same works-in-progress without moving forward in any way. By committing to share my work with others, I’m forced to let go of it, and in that very process, I invariably experience a surge of clarity that helps take that piece to the next level. Later this month, it will be my turn to share some writing with the group, so stay tuned for updates in the next edition of Author Abroad.
Another important aspect of being part of a writing community is taking the time to support and celebrate the work of your fellow writers. This can be as simple as leaving a review of their work on Amazon, Goodreads and/or social media. It only takes a few minutes of time to cobble together and post a couple of sentences, and it can mean so much to the writer. Yet many of us—myself included—are shy about doing so. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s fear of putting our opinions out there, worry that not everyone will agree with our point of view. Whatever the reason, I am just as guilty as the next person. Although I regularly share my thoughts on books through this Substack, I’ve only rarely posted them elsewhere. I plan to change that.😊
Life Abroad
Why does August make me so sentimental? Like many things in life, it’s complicated, a combination of joy and sorrow, seeming opposites that somehow serve to make the other even more keenly felt. It starts with nature: the weather deliciously warm, woods and gardens around our house at their leafy peak, starry evenings filled with fireflies and the sound of crickets. I can’t get enough of swimming in the sparkling Atlantic Ocean, walking in the woods behind my house, or riding my bike through the State Forest. The pure joy of nature this time of year is enough to make me cry, but it’s the knowledge of its impermanence that gets me.
After decades living abroad, August (together with its partner in crime, June) fills my gut with a panicky sensation brought on by the prospect of one part of my life coming to an end and another beginning—leaving friends in one posting to start a new life in another country/continent, or leaving family and friends in the USA to return abroad. Before I had kids, I flitted from country to country without shedding a tear. This changed after our daughters were born; I started to view all this coming and going from their perspective, and the perspective of the people who cared about them, imagining what it was like for them to spend joy-filled days with friends and family only to have to say goodbye at the end of that day/week/summer/school year/posting—sometimes forever.
As my summer here in the US draws to a close, and I prepare to return to Dhaka, I’m trying to be more mindful not only about what I will miss but also what I look forward to: getting to know our new neighborhood, returning to my Dhaka book club, joining a Dhaka writer’s group, going on a yoga retreat, taking trips in the region, talking about The Golden Land at the Dhaka American Woman’s Association this fall, attending cultural events, eating delicious Bangladeshi food, and reconnecting with friends in Dhaka and the region.
Reading
Glove Shy: A Sister’s Reckoning by Janet Hurley (Lystra Books, 2023)
This remarkable and highly readable memoir by fellow Lesley writer Janet Hurley centers on the life of her brother, Brian, a promising young boxer, whose blazing but tortured life threatened to consume everyone in his orbit, including his little sister, Janet. Hurley’s prose is sharp and clear, and her ability to cut through her tangled emotions remarkably forthright as she expertly weaves her own frank memories with prophetic passages from Brian’s own essays and later-in-life interviews with friends and colleagues in the boxing world.
The Italian Prisoner: A Novel by Elisa M. Speranza (Burgundy Bend Press, 2022)
A fresh and intimate coming-of-age story, The Italian Prisoner by my new writer friend Elisa Speranza is the story of Rose Marino, a young, Sicilian-American woman, crafting a life for herself as she navigates complicated family relationships, the blush of new love, and her own burgeoning professional aspirations at a time when women are expected to be homemakers. Set in 1940s New Orleans, where several hundred Italian POWs were held during World War II, the novel illuminates a fascinating but little-known chapter of American history while exploring the absurdity of war, in which everyday people with the same sets of values and aesthetics can be enemies one day and lovers the next.
The Heart of God: Poems of Life, Poems of Prayer by Rabindranath Tagore, selected and edited by Hebert F Vetter (Tuttle Publishing, 2022)
Continuing my exploration of Bangladeshi and Bengali literature, I decided to tackle the poetry of the illustrious Rabindranath Tagore this month. (See Author Abroad #4 for my previous review of his short stories.) As the name implies, this volume of poetry is religious in tone, but because Tagore embraced all religions equally, the overall effect is more spiritual and philosophical, celebrating Nature over any specific religion. As the editor writes in the foreword, “It is this ambiguity that makes these songs all the more poignant, where love of God and of a person become interchangeable and even synonymous in a Poet noted for his humanism.” I found these poems to be very accessible to read and especially appreciated the abundance of nature metaphors.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Penguin Press, 2023)
This bestselling treatise on creativity was recommended by one of the members of my new writers collective. Part motivational, part artist toolkit, and part inquiry into the meaning of life, it covers everything from how to access your creative self to why we make art in the first place. Rubin views the making of art as an essential human act, suggesting it may not be possible to fully know ourselves without expressing our creativity in some way, whether through writing, music, or other art forms.
“The act of creation is an attempt to enter a mysterious realm. A longing to transcend. What we create allows us to share glimpses of an inner landscape, one that is beyond our understanding. Art is our portal to the unseen world.”
The Creative Act is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in deepening their creativity.
That’s it for this month. Thanks for reading. Drop me a line to let me know what parts of this newsletter you enjoyed, or just to say hi!
💕Liz