April 13, 2007

Writing for the Moon and Stars

By MELISSA HART

While studying literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz, I stole a copy of Natalie Goldberg's newly published Writing Down the Bones from my roommate — just slipped it into my drawer with all the defensive morality of an idealistic freshman. "I need this book," I would have said, had my roommate called me on the theft.

Her composition professor had included it on his syllabus as mandatory reading. "It's the first textbook I've ever read cover to cover," my