Profiles

I was good at listening to my kids—at really hearing what they were saying and what they were not saying. This helped me to honor who they were at any given moment (kids change so fast!), and I prided myself on that aspect of my parenting. That same skill is at the heart of book coaching.

I find hope in the books I read which . . . often are hopeful in the face of terrible odds.

I have to believe that I am telling my son that I embrace all the parts of myself, all of my flaws and mistakes, and I am not ashamed to tell the truth.

What if love could be measured? What if maternal instincts could literally be measured? Those questions really lodged in my subconscious.

Megan Mayhew Bergman’s stories explore women who dare to be discontent in their lives.

The best poems enter your body and you think with them forever. I hope to one day write a poem that does that work for someone else.

That she managed to parent four kids while crafting a successful writing career seems as otherworldly as the spirits that haunt her fiction.

“I write about things that I want to understand, that I want to figure out, and I try to impose some form onto things that feel chaotic or confusing.” Kim Brooks

“When I was younger, I assumed all relationships were permanent.” Erin Flanagan

“I write to untangle my complicated feelings.”

I know that people can be led, by invitation, to notice the world and to relish it.