One of the advantages of living near Ann Arbor, Michigan, is the opportunity to be part of the thriving literary community that revolves around the University of Michigan’s prestigious Zell Writers’ Program. When I moved here twelve years ago, I declared that I had landed in Writer Heaven.
One of Ann Arbor’s gems (in the eyes of readers and writers) is Literati Bookstore. The small independent bookstore holds modest events such as readings and book clubs. But it also hosts larger events at the nearby Michigan Theater featuring well-known authors such as Joyce Carol Oates and David Sedaris. Recently, for the fourth time, Literati hosted Anne Lamott. And as an early retirement gift to myself, I attended.
Lamott was promoting her new book Somehow: Thoughts on Love, which she describes as a guidebook on how to live that she, now seventy years old with twenty published books, wrote for her son and grandson. During her appearance, she read these lines from the book: One day at a time, and somehow one hour at a time, love will be enough to see us through, get us back on our feet and dust us off. Love gives us a shot at being the person we were born to be.
She is smart, and funny, and gives the impression that she is entirely approachable. She made her audience laugh and at times moved some to tears.
She acknowledged that some of us in the audience were writers, and she addressed us with empathy and motherly compassion. Of all that she said during her appearance, one comment stands out for me. When she said it, it seemed that she was speaking directly to me.
No one around you will care that you are writing. So, find other writers. Form a group. Give your close attention to your group members’ writing and offer them your honest feedback. Writers must support each other.
I have found throughout my career that successful authors, even the ones who write craft books, tend to be evasive about their own writing practices and processes. They may want to appear to be trustworthy sages willing to lead lesser-known writers into the limelight but, whether out of superstition or self-protection, they are at best secretive and at worst misleading about how they write.
But what Lamott said struck me as the most honest, practical, valid advice that an accomplished author could give other writers. No one around you is likely to provide you with much support for a vocation that generally doesn’t pay and that isn’t deemed important. So, support your fellow writers. Support each other.
As my last semester of teaching is ending and I’ll be fleeing academia to devote my full attention to my writing, I feel very much alone. Who will care what I’m working on? Who will care if I’m meeting my writing goals or not meeting them? Will I find readers for my work? Will my writing benefit others? All is uncertain.
So, I’ll be hoping to find other writers and form a community of mutual support. I’ve been a member of writing groups in the past, and I know how beneficial they can be. I’m hoping to experience that kind of relationship with other writers again. It’s a scary proposition, putting myself out there, hoping to find other writers and to be accepted among them. But I’m here in Writer Heaven, so it should be possible.
Person on the Page 
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