My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
By: Carl Phillips
4.45
Format: 112 pages, Hardcover
An invaluable companion for any writer seeking to make the writing life a more complex and cooperat…
Want to Read $ 8.36If you liked the nonfiction plot in My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing by Carl Phillips , here is a list of 15 books like this:
1. What the Living Do: Poems
By: Marie Howe
3.00
Format: 48 pages, Paperback
Informed by the death of a beloved brother, here are the stories of childhood, its thicket of sex a… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Marie Howe's What the Living Do: Poems book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- literature
- poetry
- queer
2. Book of My Nights
By: Li-Young Lee
3.27
Format: None pages, Paperback
Book of My Nightsis the first poetry collection in ten years by one of the world's most acclaimed y… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Li-Young Lee's Book of My Nights book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
3. Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures
By: Mary Ruefle
3.93
Format: 214 pages, Paperback
This is one of the wisest books I've read in years... --New York Times Book Review No writer I know… read more
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4. Life on Mars
By: Tracy K. Smith
4.45
Format: 122 pages,
You lie there kicking like a baby, waiting for God himself To lift you past the rungs of your crib.… read more
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5. A Horse at Night: On Writing
By: Amina Cain
4.03
Format: 136 pages, Paperback
A virtuosic meditation on literature and life in the tradition of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s … read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Amina Cain's A Horse at Night: On Writing book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- art
- memoir
- literature
- nonfiction
- essays
- writing
- crafts
"For me, fiction is a space of plainness and excess."-Amina Cain, A Horse at Night: On Writing
"Female solitude is weighted with a particular power in literature."-Amina Cain, A Horse at Night: On Writing
"I want to leave a chain of images that remain in the reader's mind. I want to write what heightened experience feels like."-Amina Cain, A Horse at Night: On Writing
"Perhaps solitude is a practice as much as an instinct, its pleasures very much contextual. Sometimes being alone is terrible."-Amina Cain, A Horse at Night: On Writing
6. frank: sonnets
By: Diane Seuss
4.50
Format: 137 pages, Paperback
WINNER OF THE 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY WINNER OF THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD … read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Diane Seuss's frank: sonnets book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
- memoir
- queer
"I saw a little movie of a person stroking a small bird with two Q-tips, one held between the forefinger and thumb of each hand. It tipped back its head to receive the minor tenderness, which to the b…"-Diane Seuss, frank: sonnets
7. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On
By: Franny Choi
3.99
Format: 144 pages, Hardcover
From acclaimed poet Franny Choi comes a poetry collection for the ends of worlds--past, present, an… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Franny Choi's The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- queer
"I have last year's ashes in my throat, stories stuffed so full of morals they bleed sugar."-Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On
"How can I explain the things and things and things I did wrong? I was never any good at telling the difference between what wanted me and what wanted me gone"-Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On
8. The Hurting Kind: Poems
By: Ada Limon
4.34
Format: 120 pages, Hardcover
An astonishing collection about interconnectedness—between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ou… read more
Want to Read $ 9.49Similar categories in Ada Limon's The Hurting Kind: Poems book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
"There is a solitude in this world I cannot pierce. I would die for it."-Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind: Poems
"Before, the only thing I was interested in was love, how it grips you, how it terrifies you, how it annihilates and resuscitates you. I didn’t know then that it wasn’t even love that I was interested…"-Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind: Poems
9. Girls That Never Die: Poems
By: Safia Elhillo
4.30
Format: 144 pages, Paperback
Intimate poems that explore feminine shame and violence and imagine what liberation from these thre… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Safia Elhillo's Girls That Never Die: Poems book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
- memoir
"I will begin by writing a sentence about cutting. I will begin by writing a sentence about silence. I will continue by writing a sentence about cutting. I will proceed to ask the question about cutti…"-Safia Elhillo, Girls That Never Die: Poems
10. All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)
By: Paul Tran
3.87
Format: 112 pages, Paperback
A profound meditation on physical, emotional, and psychological transformation in the aftermath of … read more
Want to Read $ 10.99Similar categories in Paul Tran's All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets) book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
- queer
"There is no truth. Only a version. Aversion. A verge. A vengeance."-Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)
"I see not stars but their light reaching across the distance between us."-Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)
"I, after so much isolation, so much indifference, kept going even if going meant only waiting, hovering in place. So far below, so far away from the rest of life...."-Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)
"...an actualized poem requires the actualization, or radical transformation, of the poet - that a poem is the discovery and enactment of an emotional and psychological investigation into the vexed in…"-Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (Penguin Poets)
11. The Carrying
By: Ada Limon
4.40
Format: 120 pages, Hardcover
From National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Ada Limón comes The Carryi… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Ada Limon's The Carrying book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
"What if, instead of carrying a child, I am supposed to carry grief?"-Ada Limon, The Carrying
"All I’ve been working on is napping, and maybe being kinder to others, to myself."-Ada Limon, The Carrying
"I know you don’t always understand, but let me point to the first wet drops landing on the stones, the noise like fingers drumming the skin. I can’t help it. I will never get over making everything s…"-Ada Limon, The Carrying
"I saw a mom take her raincoat off and give it to her young daughter when a storm took over the afternoon. My god, I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her raincoat thinking it was somehow a marve…"-Ada Limon, The Carrying
12. 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round
By: Jami Attenberg
4.22
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
Inspired by Jami Attenberg’s wildly popular literary movement #1000WordsofSummer, this writer’s gui… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Jami Attenberg's 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- crafts
- nonfiction
- essays
- writing
13. Modern Poetry: Poems
By: Diane Seuss
4.53
Format: 112 pages, Hardcover
Diane Seuss’s signature voice―audacious in its honesty, virtuosic in its artistry, outsider in its … read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Diane Seuss's Modern Poetry: Poems book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
14. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing
By: Elena Ferrante
3.81
Format: 160 pages, Paperback
Four new and revelatory essays by the author of My Brilliant Friend and The Lost Daughter In 202… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Elena Ferrante's In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- memoir
- literature
- nonfiction
- essays
- writing
- crafts
"Literary work couldn't seriously force the whirlpool of debris that constituted the real into any grammatical or syntactical order."-Elena Ferrante, In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing
"Dealings with the world, yes, at any time they are entirely ours. But the words--the written form in which we enclose them, attentive to the red margins of our notebooks--are not. We have to accept t…"-Elena Ferrante, In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing
15. Marigold and Rose
By: Louise Glück
3.65
Format: 55 pages, Hardcover
Marigold and Rose is a magical and incandescent fiction from Nobel Prize laureate Louise Glück. … read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Louise Glück's Marigold and Rose book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- literature
- poetry
16. Couplets
By: Maggie Millner
3.76
Format: 128 pages, Hardcover
A woman lives an ordinary life in Brooklyn. She has a boyfriend. They share a cat. She writes poems… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Maggie Millner's Couplets book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- queer
"Change is constant and inexorable. You will fall in love. The relationship will end, though not at the same instant as the love. Some version of this will continue, maybe forever, happening to you. D…"-Maggie Millner, Couplets
"And when I held her cheek against my cheek, I was drawing from the well of love he filled. So I became after all not him exactly but a kind of conduit between them: a conversation they conducted with…"-Maggie Millner, Couplets
17. The Sorrows of Others
By: Ada Zhang
4.09
Format: 160 pages, Paperback
Set in China and America, in the generations after the Cultural Revolution, The Sorrows of Others i… read more
Want to Read $ 9.49Similar categories in Ada Zhang's The Sorrows of Others book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
18. Judas Goat: Poems
By: Gabrielle Bates
4.21
Format: 104 pages, Paperback
Gabrielle Bates’s electric debut collection Judas Goat plumbs the depths of intimate relationships.… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Gabrielle Bates's Judas Goat: Poems book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
19. My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
By: Carl Phillips
4.45
Format: 112 pages, Hardcover
An invaluable companion for any writer seeking to make the writing life a more complex and cooperat… read more
Want to Read $ 8.36Similar categories in Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- art
- memoir
- literature
- teaching
- nonfiction
- essays
- writing
- crafts
- queer
20. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World
By: Ada Limon
4.11
Format: 176 pages, Hardcover
Published association with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate o… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Ada Limon's You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
21. Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
By: Chen Chen
4.15
Format: 128 pages, Paperback
What happens when everything falls away, when those you call on in times of need are themselves cal… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Chen Chen's Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- queer
"If we could communicate fully, there would be no need to communicate. If we could love perfectly, there would be no need to love. If we could finish grieving, there would be no need to live. If we co…"-Chen Chen, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
"You climb back in bed & touch my face. You climb back in bed to touch my face. You wrap your arms around me & it’s like you’re the patron saint if touch as well as soft sunlight & soothed dogs. Or yo…"-Chen Chen, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
22. Ordinary Notes
By: Christina Sharpe
4.55
Format: 392 pages, Hardcover
A singular achievement, Ordinary Notes explores profound questions about loss and the shapes of Bla… read more
Want to Read $ 16.99Similar categories in Christina Sharpe's Ordinary Notes book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
- memoir
- essays
23. Grand Tour: Poems
By: Elisa Gonzalez
3.92
Format: 86 pages, Kindle Edition
Grand Tour, the debut collection of poetry by Elisa Gonzalez, dramatizes the mind in motion as it g… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Elisa Gonzalez's Grand Tour: Poems book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
24. Rupture Tense
By: Jenny Xie
3.91
Format: 120 pages, Paperback
The astounding second collection by Jenny Xie, “a magician of perspective and scale” (The New Yorke… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Jenny Xie's Rupture Tense book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
25. Ghost Of
By: Diana Khoi Nguyen
4.36
Format: 88 pages, Paperback
Ghost Of elegizes a brother lost via suicide, is a mourning song for the idea of family, a family h… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Diana Khoi Nguyen's Ghost Of book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
- memoir
26. Promises of Gold
By: José Olivarez
4.39
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
A groundbreaking collection of poems addressing how every kind of love—self, brotherly, romantic, f… read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in José Olivarez's Promises of Gold book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
- nonfiction
- memoir
27. Theophanies
By: Sarah Ghazal Ali
4.46
Format: 100 pages, Paperback
Theophanies, selected as the Editors Choice for the 2022 Alice James Award, is a testament to women… read more
Want to Read $ 15.95Similar categories in Sarah Ghazal Ali's Theophanies book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
28. Liars
By: Sarah Manguso
3.89
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
A searing novel about being a wife, a mother, and an artist, and how marriage makes liars out of us… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Sarah Manguso's Liars book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
"I was in charge of everything and in control of nothing."-Sarah Manguso, Liars
"I needed my suffering to be acknowledged. After that, maybe I’d think about getting through it."-Sarah Manguso, Liars
29. Pleasure Principle: Poems
By: Madeleine Cravens
4.32
Format: 80 pages, Paperback
An astonishing debut collection of poems about desire and the chaos of youth. In her stunning debu… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle: Poems book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
30. Removal Acts
By: Erin Marie Lynch
4.42
Format: 136 pages, Paperback
Drawing its title from the 1863 Federal Act that banished the Dakota people from their homelands, t… read more
Want to Read $ 9.99Similar categories in Erin Marie Lynch's Removal Acts book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
- poetry
31. Creation Lake
By: Rachel Kushner
3.67
Format: 416 pages, Hardcover
From Rachel Kushner, a Booker Prize finalist, two-time National Book Award finalist, and “one of th… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Rachel Kushner's Creation Lake book and Carl Phillips's My Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing
"Charisma does not originate inside the person called "charismatic." It comes from the need of others to believe that special people exist."-Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake
"Plus, Lucien said, a lot of them had come from other social milieus and had tattoos from earlier lives, since people who change affinities are the same kinds of people who are attracted to the perman…"-Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake
"My biker and these tramps, as people who organize their life around some subculture or other: People can sometimes pretend so thoroughly that they forget they are pretending. At which point, it could…"-Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake
"I could sense him gathering a false hindsight that afternoon in the Place des Vosges, shaping a retrospective narrative, the thing a person tells himself about fate, about how everything had seemed f…"-Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake
