Writing Creativity and Soul
Published by: KnopfRelease Date: October 21, 2025
Pages: 240
ISBN13: 978-0593804643
Buy the Book: Penguin Random House, Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound, Bookshop.org, Audible
Overview
From the bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Book of Longings: an intimate work on the mysteries, frustrations, and triumphs of being a writer, and an instructive guide to awakening the soul.
When Sue Monk Kidd was in high school, a home economics teacher wrote a list of potential occupations for women on the blackboard: teacher, nurse, librarian, secretary. “Writer” was nowhere to be found. On that day, Kidd shut the door on her writerly aspirations and would not revisit the topic until many years later when she announced to her husband and two children that she was going to become a writer. And so began her journey into the mysteries and methods of the writerly life…
In Writing Creativity and Soul, Sue Monk Kidd will pull from her own life and the lives of other writers—Virginia Woolf, Maya Angelou, Harper Lee, and many others—to provide a map for anyone who has ever felt lost as a writer. At the heart of this book is the unwavering belief that writing is a spiritual act, one that draws inspiration from the soul, that wellspring of creativity between imagination and feeling. Once you tap into that part of yourself, said Maya Angelou, there are only three more things you need as a writer: something to say, the ability to say it, and, perhaps most difficult of all, the courage to say it.
Equal parts memoir, guidebook, and spiritual quest, Writing Creativity and Soul is a pilgrimage and a touchstone, a journey into the transformational force of the imagination and the creative genius that lies in the unconscious.
Praise
"A beautiful ode to creativity and the inner world of the writer and artist. This book offers a gentle journey through many of Sue Monk Kidd’s own inspirations. I read it in a single sitting and came away both inspired and deeply moved."
—EMMA GANNON
"One expects to walk away from this title a little more in tune with the burning core of our own artistic selves, and a wish to share it with the world"
—Lit Hub
"A gorgeous memoir of the creative life, designed to bring out the writer's voice in all of us."
—Kirkus
"A lyrical read and a generous companion for writers especially those seeking depth in the process."
—Booklist
"The book flows easily, its rapid-fire chapters interspersing writing tips with pilgrimages to the homes of literary role models, examples from her books and others', and inspirational quotations. A trove for Kidd's fans, this accessible toolkit for budding authors is also suited to readers of Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic."
—Shelf Awareness
Excerpt
When I was a young writer of thirty and just setting out, I traveled to North Carolina to hear Maya Angelou give a lecture on writing. I sat on the sixth row of the large auditorium while the tall woman with the powerful presence spoke about the cost of carrying untold stories inside, about wielding a voice in the world, about writing that brings the reader alive. Her words stirred up every longing I had. I sat there like a snow globe turned upside down.