Winner of the Wandering Aengus Press Book Award, Tarn Wilson's memoir in essays In Praise of Inadequate Gifts explores the varied ways we process trauma and loss-and the miraculous, awkward, and imperfect process of renewal. Wilson touches on a wide range of topics: her obsession with teeth, why she doesn't have children, the summer she spent soldering keyboards for Chrysler Le Barons. She traces the after effects of her mother's rape, her confusion after her friend's mother is murdered, her own divorce and struggle with anxiety, and her complex grief after the death of her distant father and mentally ill mother. The topics are difficult, but Wilson addresses them with curiosity and gentle humor. Her honesty, empathy, and lack of self-pity make us feel we are sitting down with a trusted friend, ready to confess our own hard journey. Ultimately, this collection is not just about suffering, but about the redemptive power of kindness and connection, that inadequate gift. "Love's gestures are so unassuming, so ordinary, so clumsy, so imperfect - yet, miraculously, they hold something larger than themselves, big enough to press back against the darkness." Her experimentation with form, with a segmented essay and two essays in lists, allow her to reflect in a multi-faceted way, not just on the events, but on how we tell our stories, the choices we make as we construct the narrative of our lives. Dinty W. Moore calls these essays, "honest, powerful, and necessary." Brenda Miller writes, "Wilson shows us how we can tell stories that matter, even when our hearts have broken." Scott Russell Sanders says "These essays will surely resonate with readers who have faced their own hard questions." Abigail Thomas, bestselling author of What Comes Next and How to Like It says, "I fell in love on the very first page. Tarn Wilson is an irresistible writer and her new book is a treasure. Buy it, read it, tell everyone you know."

In Praise of Inadequate Gifts

Self-Help

Wilson, Tarn

Relationships

Wandering Aengus Press

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Carving out a few minutes of writing time every day can help you become a better writer—but coming up with topics to write about is often easier said than done. That’s where 5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts comes in. Filled with 501 prompts to get your creative juices flowing, this book encourages you to practice your writing every day. 
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5-Minute Daily Writing Prompts: 501 Prompts to Unleash Creativity and Spark Inspiration

Motivational

Callisto

In the early 1970s, Tarn Wilson’s father quit his job as the Brookings Institution’s first computer programmer, packed his family into a converted school bus with “Suck Nixon” painted on the side, and headed for the Canadian wilderness. He planned to give his two young children an Edenic childhood, free from the shadows of war, materialism, and middle class repression. Between each lyric chapter, told from the child’s point of view, Wilson incorporates “artifacts” that reveal larger cultural forces shaping her parents’ decisions: letters, photographs, timelines, newspaper clippings, excepts from radical approaches to child rearing. In the space between the child’s vision and the adult context, readers are invited to consider the gifts and burdens of a counterculture childhood.

The Slow Farm

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Ovenbird Books

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Books by Wilson, Tarn