My Trade Is Mystery

An invaluable companion for any writer seeking to make the writing life a more complex and cooperative venture Illuminating, deeply endearing essays.Ron Charles, Washington Post A lovely, loving letter to aspiring writers.Diego Bez, Booklist In these intimate and eloquent meditations, the award-winning poet Carl Phillips shares lessons he has learned about the writing life, an apprenticeship to what can never fully be mastered. Drawing on forty years of teaching and mentoring emerging writers, he weaves his experiences as a poet with the necessary survival skills, including ambition, stamina, silence, politics, practice, audience, and community. In the tradition of Anne Lamotts Bird by Bird, Rainer Maria Rilkes Letters to a Young Poet, and Marcus Aureliuss Meditations, this is an invaluable companion for writers at every stage of their journey. Phillipss book serves as a partner in speculation and an invitation to embrace mystery.