How creative writing can help you through life's hardest moments

In this slim collection of essays, Danticat’s bare bones approach to art, exile, immigration, and creation allows the reader to see the impact and importance of bearing witness.

In this photojournal, Stepan gathers photos that played pivotal moments in the modern world’s history. In addition to photos such as the joyous one from Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, there are photos that don’t look away from the brutality of the world, such as the “Massacre in Beijing", the “Execution in Saigon" and the impact of the Great Depression in “Migrant Mother."

This intertextual poetry collection, winner the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, is a master class at bearing witness. By using the second person, Rankine forces the reader to become “you,” the speaker. Rankine places the reader in uncomfortable situations that explore systemic racism (such as what it means to be black in America, from the harmful impacts of implicit bias to violent effects of blatant racism. Her ability to aptly to capture moments demonstrates the importance of writing down both the mundane and monumental moments of one’s life.

The Artist’s Way offers writing methods everyone can use to unlock creative aspects of their lives. Through a combination of weekly exercises, quotes and anecdotes, Cameron taps into how writing can be beneficial for people of all backgrounds. The recommended morning pages (3 pages of freewriting journaling that you complete the first thing every morning) help uncover fears, aspirations and goals.