Books by Author Sheila Bender
Since Then: Poems and Short Prose
My first collection in almost a decade, Since Then: Poems and Short Prose, is available from Ex Ophidia Press in Seattle. Signed copies are available through me here at Writing It Real.
Brenda Miller, author of A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form, writes,
“For anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one, or is anticipating such a loss (which means everyone!), this book also serves as a ‘guardian’ for our grief. Bender has our back as we navigate this rocky and unmapped terrain. I read this book in one sitting, gratitude welling along with my tears.”
Alison Townsend, Emerita Professor English and author of Persephone in America and The Blue Dress writes “Since Then will go on the shelf of books I turn to for succor and delight, for help finding the way forward with grief into ‘the only present possible,’ alive and infused with wonder. The book is a gift to the world.”
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Writing Personal Essays: Shaping and Sharing Your Life Experience
Writing from the truths in our lives seems difficult but personal essayist Sheila Bender provides a powerful methodology to reach more deeply into your personal experience and, therefore, to reach others deeply. You’ll create eight styles of personal essays to examine your life events from different perspectives. Each essay style is guaranteed to help you mine your experience, for insight and wisdom. With Writing Personal Essays: Shaping And Sharing
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Write, Write, Write: 7 Dynamite Instructional Articles for Those Who Want to Write Prose from Personal Experience
This is a guide full of exercises and examples for achieving the kind of approach to writing from personal experience that will help you find wonderfully deep and surprising material! I write instruction like this every week for Writing It Real. I hope you’ll enjoy the book! Yours in Writing, Sheila Bender.
Available on Kindle
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Writing in a New Convertible with the Top Down: A Unique Guide for Writers
A correspondence between two writers reveals how their personal lives and daily experiences inform the writing process. Sheila Bender and Christi Killien meet at a writing conference and later decide to produce a book about writing. Living in different cities, they begin by writing each other letters that capture their approaches to writing, how they find the “starting place” for new work, and the ways they make it through the nonlinear process of telling their stories. Writing In a Convertible with the Top Down has been used widely in writing classes and workshops.
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Sorrow’s Words: Writing Exercises To Heal Grief
Writing can be a powerful tool for anyone going through the mourning process. Poet, author, and writing instructor Sheila Bender offers guidance for writing about loved ones who have died in Sorrow’s Words: Writing Exercises for Healing Grief. The book contains sixteen unique writing prompts that help readers express their real experiences. Each chapter contains examples written by literary masters as well as ordinary people.This writing workbook can help everyone who has been through the difficult circumstances that surround the death of a loved one to put their feelings into words. Those who have suffered a loss can use the writing exercises in this book as opportunities to survive, to accept, and to grow. Sheila Bender, who lost her son in a snowboarding accident in 2000, inspires readers to use writing as an activity to appreciate the beauty in the bittersweet nature of human experience
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A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief
Poet and essayist Sheila Bender tells the story of her family and the family of her son Seth Bender’s fianc?e coming together, understanding that 25-year-old Seth will be taken off life support. She writes about the months they faced together before the upcoming day that would have been his wedding day, and she tells the story of using poetry to write her way out of grief and find a way of carrying her son’s life in her own, a way of understanding mortality and immortality. A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief is accessible, absorbing, and a bringer of peace to those who mourn.
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Behind Us the Way Grows Wider: Collected Poems 1980 – 2013
Poets and writers have called Sheila Bender’s work generous, windows of light, precise, clear and unpretentious. William Matthews wrote of her poetry, “The clarity–both emotional and linguistic–of these poems is testament to the work Sheila Bender has set for herself: to understand as far as she can and then to admit, in the presence of mystery, that ignorance that forms for us, every day, three square meals. I love these poems both for that diligence and themselves.
Peggy Schumaker commented, “With great generosity Sheila Bender’s writing shows how we can create moments where we can breath, places where we can rest…her work celebrates life, celebrates love.”
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Creative Writing DeMYSTiFied
Whether for high school, college or pleasure creative writing, you need to know the basic elements of the craft.Creative Writing DeMYSTiFied gives you helpful suggestions for evaluating your work for freshness and originality and offers scores of exercises, techniques, samples and websites to access more. The book introduces you to general creative writing terms and craft as well as genre specific terms and craft elements.
Creative Writing DeMYSTiFied lets you work at your own pace and provides: An overview of the creative writing field today and its history, insights from top writers in the creative writing subgenres, exercises by professionals in all the subgenres, answers to questions creative writers have, and resources for revising and finishing your work.
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A Year in the Life: Journaling for Self-Discovery
With this guide, you can reach new levels of self-knowledge and revelation. A Year in the Life gently lead you through one full year of introspective writing, using weekly prompts and topics as a springboard into your deepest feelings. A respected teacher and author, Sheila Bender provides the perfect blend of structure, guidance, and creative freedom, motivating you to begin writing today and continue on throughout the year with zest and satisfaction. Her guidance also take you beyond ordinary journals, helping you reap more from the writing process.Available at International Association for Journal Writing e-bookstore.
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Writing Personal Poetry: Creating Poems from Your Life Experiences
Beginning with 12 things you can do to help yourself write poetry, poet and teacher Sheila Bender shows you how to peel away your inhibitions and get in touch with your deepest, truest feelings. She explains poetry as a process of personal and creative growth, guiding you through an examination of your emotions and memories so you can begin to put your feelings into words.
Available at International Association for Journal Writing e-bookstore.
Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays
Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays has the tools to communicate exactly what you want to say, with the style and panache that display your individual intelligence and creativity to the application board. This vital resource gives you all the phrases you need to get things done, exactly the way you want it done, right at your fingertips.
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