Writing from the Center [Paperback]

Winner Great Lakes Book Award, 1996

... essays of substance and beauty... they belong beside the work of Annie Dillard, Samuel Pickering, and Wendell Berry. Library Journal

His essays are so good one is tempted to stand up and applaud after reading them. Body Mind Spirit

How can one live a meaningful, gathered life in a world that seems broken and scattered? That is the question Scott Sanders probes in this book. Writing from the Center is about one very fine writers quest for a meaningful moral life. The center he seeks and describes is geographical, emotional, artistic, and spiritualand it is rooted in place. The geography is midwestern, the impulses are universal. Where and how do we find meaning? Where does a writer find inspiration? How can personal, artistic, family, and community needs be blended to create a harmonious life? What aids exist in such a located life against despair? How should a writer relate to and represent his place?

Scott Russell Sanders is Professor of English at Indiana University, Bloomington. He has published numerous other titlesfiction, nonfiction, and childrens books.

Preface
Buckeye
Beneath the Smooth Skin of America
Imagining the Midwest
Sanctuary
The Common Life
Faith and Work
The Writer in the University
News of the Wild
Voyageurs
Earth, Air, Fire, and Water
Writing from the Center
Letter to a Reader
Words of Thanks
Notes