Tag: book coach
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on learning self-trust
March 2017, 6:30pm. It’s pitch black and sleeting — spiky, gray slush flying through the air. I curse this oh-so-Rochester night as I drive to teach a novel-writing class. I’m used to weather like this. I grew up here, after all. But tonight, it almost brings me to tears. “I have to get out of…
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who are books for?
“A book is for the reader, not the writer.” Lately I’ve been hearing this idea a lot: that you should write a book based not on what you want to say, but on what the reader needs to hear. There’s truth in that. But the opposite is also true: At its core, a book is…
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on the unfamiliar
When I first moved to Iquitos, a city deep in the Peruvian Amazon, I felt farther from home than I’d ever been. Nothing was familiar. Motos screeched around corners—many with small children, many with women nursing babies. It was 100 degrees, but people stood on sidewalks grilling whole fish. Cumbia rhythms poured through windows. Yet…
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on discovery
One fall Saturday while visiting my parents in upstate New York, we went to the town’s famous annual shindig: the Hilton Apple Fest. We parked at a church nearby, and on the way back to the car, we passed what looked like overgrown brush. Until: “Is that okra?” I said, stepping off the path. “Where?”…
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on wonder
“Why is it important to preserve Kukama culture?” someone asked. “Because the plants don’t speak to us in Spanish,” answered Pascual. “They speak to us in Kukama.” * On Friday I got back from five days in the Amazon. (When I’m not writing, I volunteer with an NGO called Minga Peru. Usually that means meetings…
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the memoir circle
UPDATE (December 26, 2025): The Memoir Circle is now closed. If you want to be notified when the next one opens, please fill out the form below. Everyone has a story worth telling. But writing it can feel daunting. Where do you start? How do you put a life on the page? The Memoir Circle…
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on writing a memoir
“Want to join a memoir-writing group with me?” my friend S. asked me one day in 2019. This was pretty random. We’d never talked about writing memoirs before, and I wasn’t ghostwriting them yet. I liked reading them, but my specialty was fiction. “Yes!” I said right away. “When do we start?” Shoot, I thought…
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on moving
Moving day. Everything’s moved in, so now it’s a matter of organizing. This is my favorite part. Deciding what goes where, that glimmer of satisfaction when I put something its new home. I don’t have much stuff (and thank God the apartment’s furnished). Each object I own tells a story of where or who it…
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on being ghosted
Years ago, I met a prospective client, a renowned clothing designer, in her NYC studio. We discussed the book she wanted to write — her timeline, her goals, her hopes and fears. I thought we bonded… …and then she ghosted me. Weeks passed. I wondered: Was it something I said?I should NOT have worn that…
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on connecting the dots
My first night in Peru, I sat on my patio and opened a notebook to write. I’d come here to find peace. My life had been upended recently—a 6-year relationship ended; the house I’d wanted to buy had fallen through. The future I’d imagined had dissolved, and I felt lost and uncertain. Here, though, listening…
Kimberly Bunker, MFA 