Resources We Recommend
Books We Recommend
Creativity / Writing
Mihály Csikszentmihalyi, Flow
Scott Barry Kaufman & Carolyn Gregoire, Wired to Create
Dacher Keltner, Awe
Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way
Ross Gay, The Book of Delights
Stuart Brown, Play
Mirabai Starr, Ordinary Mysticism
John Truby, The Anatomy of Story
Robert McKee, Story
Memoir
Mary Karr, The Liar’s Club
Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle
Cheryl Strayed, Wild
Min Kym, Gone
Brian Keenan, An Evil Cradling
Salman Rushdie, Knife
Patti Smith, Just Kids
Kat Duff, The Alchemy of Illness
Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Andrea Scrima, A Lesser Day
Professional Services for Writers
KN Literary Arts
Everything you need to self-publish your book, from writing it to making it real to publicizing and selling it:
Coaching, editing, copyediting, proofreading, design inside and out, marketing, online sales strategies.
We recommend KN Literary highly!
James Navé Coaching
Manuscript coaching for writers at all stages, presentation coaching, and Artist’s Way creativity coaching.
Creative Workshops and Retreats
Sparks Fly Retreats
in UN World Heritage Site Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Sparks Fly hosts Allegra’s 5-day Memoir Intensive. They also host workshops on photography, general creativity, and more!
LEAF: The Lake Eden Arts Festival
This long-running festival of music and arts in beautiful Black Mountain, North Carolina (near Asheville), also hosts Creativity Retreats.
Songwriting Courses and Mentoring
Highly acclaimed singer-songwriter Sarah Gillespie, renowned for mixing elements of blues, folk and jazz with her distinctive streetwise lyricism. Learn to write lyrics, set them to music, record your songs, and produce an album.
SoundYourSelf Piano Improvisation
With acclaimed musician Daniel Barber. Courses, private classes, coaching, and community to make your own music medicine.
Just Draw the Boots: Figure Drawing
Live and on Zoom
With acclaimed artist Alex Alford. Just Draw the Boots is an approach to figure drawing that's predicated on the idea that drawing from a live model is an important practice for artists and non-artists alike. The practice of drawing the human figure from life builds empathy, patience, tolerance, and appreciation for human diversity. And it changes your view of yourself and your potential.
Mirabai Starr: Spiritual Retreats and Workshops
Award-winning author, contemporary translator of sacred literature, international speaker, and world-renowned teacher of contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Her book, WILD MERCY: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, continues to sell widely and has been translated into multiple languages.
Her most recent book, Ordinary Mysticism (2024), celebrates the imagination, not-knowing, amazement, and the surprises of everyday experience: just as we do in the Imaginative Storm.