Writing Toward Home: Tales and Lessons to Find Your Way [Paperback]

Georgia Heard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0435081241 | ISBN-13: 978-0435081249 | Edition: 1

Here is a personal and compassionate book for everyone writers, poets, teachers, lovers of life, and especially those seeking to find their writing voices again or for the first time. It is an autobiographical travelogue moving from a volcano in Hawaii to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and places in between, with writing at its heart.

Writing Toward Home offers practical advice on overcoming some of the obstacles writers of all ages face: writer's block, fear of rejection, confronting silencing critics in your head, finding the time to write. Each short chapter speaks to the larger truths about writing and how to truly live the writer's life: how to become more of a risk taker, how to excavate the past as a source, and how to become an acute observer of the world.

Writing Toward Home is a book that will remind you-and help you remind your students-that the true source of writing is the creative self. In this fast culture when most people have so little time to do anything but menial tasks, it will jumpstart you, it will awaken to you the journey within, it will make you want to write.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[This] is a book for the writer hidden or not so hidden in us all...It is a book for any age, to be read in little bits or all at once, and to be reread regularly.”–Inland

About the Author

Georgia Heard is a founding member of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project where she worked as senior staff developer in the New York City schools for seven years. She is currently a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, and a consultant and visiting author in school districts throughout the U.S, Canada and around the world. She is the author of numerous professional books on teaching writing including her most recent A Place for Wonder: Reading and Writing Nonfiction in the Primary Grades (Stenhouse, 2009) and Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School (Heinemann) which was cited by Instructor Magazine as "One of the Ten Best Books Every Teacher Should Read." She has also authored many children's books including her most recent Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems (Roaring Brook Press, 2009).

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann; 1 edition (October 16, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0435081241
• ISBN-13: 978-0435081249
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.4 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes me want to take my pen in hand June 21, 1998

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

My friend who was student teaching fourth graders at the time, told me about this book. She knew I wanted to start writing again, but was unsure of where and how to start. When I finally got ahold of Georgia's suggestions and life examples, I realized how difficult I was making it all out to be. Ms. Heard has helped me take my pen in hand again and I have been a happier person ever since. This book is one that you can take from the shelf over and over again, getting something different everytime you read it. I really appreciate her way of making every writer feel that their work is important - finding the joy in every piece of writing. I realized through her book that my writing, whether private or published, is a gift.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Discover the Poet in You April 26, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This must be the most accessible book on how to live and communicate one's life through poetry simultaneously. As a former Georgia Heard (a most gracious educator whose life is her work) student, I can honestly say I have gained so much valuable insight into my own writing and teaching from using this companion (book). It is a must for those "re-visionists"; those who want desperately to communicate experiences and to see these experiences take on new lives of their own. If you enjoy poetry, you should not be without this timeless guide for writing.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good For Writers At All Levels August 1, 2005

By Theresa Williams

Format:Paperback

This book is similar in theory and style to Natalie Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES. The author, Heard, uses home as a metaphor for wholeness one gains from the writing experience. There are 57 short chapters with witty titles, such as "Writing Is Like Making Tortillas," "From an Onion to My Grandmother," "Whispering into the Air," and "Try Woodworking." The best aspect about the book for me is that the act of writing is demystified and seen as a necessary and important human activity. We see this through the struggles of the author and those she meets. One of the best examples of this demystifying process is in the chapter "Poetry Inside Us All." The author describes going on a Navajo reservation to work with students and teachers. One man told her he had no poetry inside him. She asked him to tell her something he taught his students about Navajo culture. He then described how the months divide the seasons, how the "yellow of summer meets the white of winter." Heard writes of how his colleagues then told him, "That sounds like poetry to me [us]." Surprised he cried, "That's poetry? I thought it had to rhyme." This is one of my favorite chapters in the book because it blasts preconceived expectations about what poetry is. Heard offers a variety of prompts at the ends of the chapters to get one's creativity flowing, and they are very effective, I think. For instance, there are exercises on facing your inner critics, keeping the creative channel open, and discovering original metaphors. This is a book that can be used by people at all levels, from beginners to more experienced and even published writers. It's a very good book for the person who needs inspiration but can't take a writing class.