Vanessa Mártir Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Vanessa Mártir

Famous epistles include Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, Alice Walker’s The Collor Purple and Kiese Laymon’s memoir Heavy. I’m a lifelong letter writer who sent packets weekly to friends when I was in boarding school, and in college when my brother was locked up.

Vanessa Mártir

I have an essay that took me 7 years to complete. SEVEN. That essay was published in Not That Bad, the anthology edited by Roxane Gay. My most recent pub in Aster(ix) also took me years to write. I’m so grateful I stayed with it & trusted myself. https://t.co/TO5xzhhOIY

Vanessa Mártir

Most people know me as a CNF writer, but fiction was my first love. My first novel, Woman’s Cry, was published in 2007. What I love about fiction is that we are free to use all of the materials of our human experience. Come see how 6/1, 7-9pm EST #WritingCommunity pls share https://t.co/32FXXh5eDt

Vanessa Mártir

An epistle aka a letter is a form that's used quite a lot in literature. An early example is Ovid's Heroides, letters where Ovid adopts the voices of different female heroes from the classical period. He addresses the letters to all the dudes who kicked these ladies to the curb.

Vanessa Mártir

@Lupita_Reads I was 16 when I read Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents. Shifted my whole axis. I wrote about it for @nytimes here https://t.co/5xcnwmIvV4.’

Vanessa Mártir

@emilyraboteau I’ve been writing and teaching about grief for years now, & have amassed a list of essays. I’ll share a few here: "Sloth” by Jill Christman from Brevity Magazine https://t.co/JjoLmjVcJa, From Grief a Garden Grows by Ross Gay https://t.co/rrfQqRvrHu