What do writing and wishing have in common? Plenty, according to Noelle Oxenhandler, our February speaker and author of the memoir, The Wishing Year. Part memoir, part history, and part metaphysical journey, The Wishing Year is Oxenhandler’s chronicle of her year of putting it out there, a concept familiar to writers who experience their own version of putting it out there each time they face a blank page or screen, or send their fledgling manuscripts into the universe, hoping to find a home. If you’ve ever wondered if there isn’t more you can do to enhance your writing and grow your career, this is THE talk for you.
The author of two previous non-fiction books, A Grief Out of Season and The Eros of Parenthood, Oxenhandler has been published in numerous national and literary magazines, including The New Yorker, Tricycle, Parabola, and O: The Oprah Magazine. She’s a member of the creative writing faculty at Sonoma State University and previously taught in the graduate writing program at Sarah Lawrence College.
The Wishing Year, which received a starred review in Booklist, has been variously described as “charming, astonishing, poignant, candid, poetic…and ripe with discovery.” A writer’s writer, Oxenhandler may just astonish you with her surprising take on the opportunities and serendipity that await each of us on our own journeys as writers.