The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life

Memoirist Jaouad (Between Two Kingdoms) describes in this luminous guide how adopting a daily creative practice can make for a more fulfilling life. After being diagnosed with leukemia at 22, Jaouad was inspired by Michael Bierut, a design professor who’d asked his graduate students to perform “one creative act for 100 days,” to start a daily journaling practice in hopes of finding meaning in her illness. She discovered that journaling helped her remain “in conversation with the world” from her hospital bed, and repeated the process several times afterward. With this as a model, she gathers prompts from 100 novelists, journalists, and artists who invite readers to begin their own journaling practice. Kiese Laymon suggests writing about a funny or embarrassing memory from the point of view of an inanimate object at the scene, to create an emotional remove. Elsewhere, Lena Dunham muses on her fascination with movie star Brittany Murphy and the circumstances of her death, and suggests writing about a celebrity obsession and what it might reveal about oneself. The prompts are varied enough to appeal to devoted diarists and newbies alike, and Jaouad poignantly interweaves her own intimate meditations on creativity, pain, and art. The result is a stellar guide that’s sure to spark the imagination. (Apr.)