The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way [Paperback]

Rosemary Daniell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0571199356 | ISBN-13: 978-0571199358 | Publication Date: January 29, 1998

For more than fifteen years, Rosemary Daniell has led Zona Rosa, a creative writing workshop for people of all ages and all walks of life. In this dual memoir and writing guide, she describes the difficulties and the rewards of the writing life while also providing inspiration and helpful tips for writers in all stages of their careers."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For Rosemary Daniell, writing is an obsession, a turn-on, a healing process, and a vision quest. A highly sexed, somewhat New Age-y Southerner with what she would call a "healthy arrogance," Daniell hadn't heard of T. S. Eliot until she was 23 years old. In The Woman Who Spilled Words All over Herself, we learn about Daniell's evolution as a writer, her experiences teaching writing in schools and prisons, her practical and inspirational advice for writers, and the writing workshops for women (and a few men) that she has been running out of her home for more than 15 years. These writing groups are what families should be: communities that value honesty, support, stimulation, and fattening foods. Most useful here, in addition to learning the indispensability of a good writing support group, are the writing exercises, or "exorcises," at the back of the book. There's also a collection of rich Southern recipes just right for beckoning the muse. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Zona Rosa, Spanish for the "pink zone," is the name that writer and teacher Daniell (Sleeping with Soldiers, LJ 12/84) gave to a creative writing workshop she directs for women (and sometimes men) in Savannah, Georgia. The gatherings are a mixture of Composition 101 classes, therapy sessions, (Appendix A lists Zona Rosa writing "exorcises"), and white-wine klatches (the group's favorite hors d'oeuvres recipes appear in Appendix C). In her latest memoir, Daniell explains how learning to write enabled her to overcome the repressiveness of growing up in a disturbed family and of being female in the traditional South. With feminist zeal, she proclaims that writing "heals," "empowers," "organizes," "beautifies," and "changes" lives. Offering a blend of writing guidelines and sexual politics, this liberated and irrepressible belle assures her audience that it's possible to conquer writer's block and become less of a victim, simultaneously. Recommended for general readers and beginning writers who could benefit from a self-help approach.?Carol McAllister, Coll. of William & Mary Lib., Williamsburg, Va.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (January 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571199356
• ISBN-13: 978-0571199358
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,085,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A writer's feast that inspires., October 21, 1998

By 

Ja A. Jahannes (MELANON PRESS. Savannah, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Woman Who Spilled Words All over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way (Hardcover)

Daniell's book is like a banquet; she has cooked up something for everyone, beginning writers, those in the middle and old hands. This is a book I buy frequently now and give away to people I like, both writers and nonwriters. As a desert, there are a whole lot of things you can do with young people to stimulate the creative process in The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself. Super good book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This could have saved me years of stumbling in the dark, August 16, 2002

By 

Stephanie Harrison (Gainesville, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way (Paperback)

I was a little skeptical about a new-age-y writing book--another writer urging us wannabes to spill words. But Rosemary Daniell won me over. First of all, she's really practicing what she preaches--and not for the money. The first chapter, from which the title was taken, describes her experiences teaching writing in schools and prisons. It's the intersection of her greatest love and the greatest need--and both admirable and daring. I've had the pleasure of using her discussion starters with children ages 5-8 and it works!

In her chapter on self-sabotage I recognized people I know as well as myself. I will pull this chapter out on occasion to remind myself what NOT to do.

I was most taken, though, with the "Further Notes" chapter. In it she described things I've had to learn the hard way myself. (She calls it demystification--thank you, Rosemary, I wish I'd met you years ago.) For example, how to paraphrase everything first. I'm halfway finished with an MFA and have studied writing with many famous writers. NO ONE has ever mentioned this before. But it works.

There are also many provocative female ideas embedded in this book, like the use of irony in good women's fiction. I'd like to sit in on that discussion. This is a book I will buy and keep and read when I need to hear the voice of someone experienced and wise.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful -- especially for the memoirs, August 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way (Paperback)

This book is more memoir than "beginner writer" exercise book (though there are some exercises), but this is precisely why I liked it. And, of course, the "read-like-a-novel" style of writing sets it apart from ordinary "how to write" books.

Like another reviewer, I wish Rosemary and her Zona Rosa group were in my town!! Failing that, though, this book is a keeper!