writing your way into truth with Gemma Hartley

Thanks to everyone who joined Gemma Hartley and me for a great conversation about her new book, No One Loves an Angry Woman, and writing the feelings we weren’t allowed to feel, from rage to sadness to grief and more. We talked about recovering embodiment as part of the writing process, crying at yoga, and learning to trust our intuition as we work. Gemma says that if you’re having a hard time writing into difficult memories, it can help to “feel your feet more,” and she described writing barefoot so she can root herself in the present moment, even as her writing takes her back into the past. (We also talked about what our husbands think about how they show up in each of our books, if you, like me, are nosy and love to hear that kind of thing!)

Our next session of Summer School will be Thursday, June 18 at noon eastern with Heather Bowlan, poet and creator of the excellent new newsletter PHL Poetry LFG!!!!, on finding and creating community in your writing life. She’s also the author of a great poetry collection, Highlights and Blackouts, that uses erasure and collage in really cool ways; I’d talked to her about that project in an interview here:

If you’re someone who wants more writer friends and/or wants to feel more connected to your local community, this conversation is for you.

You can get the full Summer School line-up and the archive of recordings here:

To get more from Gemma and learn about all the great book events and writing workshops she has coming up this fall, subscribe to her newsletter:

As promised, this is the post where Gemma talks about the book cover process, which I always find so fascinating:

Pre-order No One Loves an Angry Woman and get this gorgeous art print and a custom matchbox.1 Just send your proof of purchase here.

You can also follow her on instagram:

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