my stance

We’re all putting ourselves together, piece by piece, becoming what we surround ourselves with. And that especially includes the stories we choose. We humans are narrative creatures at heart. With every tale we immerse ourselves in, we read our minds and hearts to life — an adventure of self-sculpting. One question is, how do we create, refine, and safeguard our reading lives? My hope is that we’ll do a little exploring here, and maybe, on occasion, I’ll be one of the writers in your reading life.

Writing a story is an act of creation, yes, but so is reading it, and so is living one’s life after reading. When a writer constructs a story, it’s an effort to depict the drama playing out in her mind. When it’s published, it’s an invitation to readers to inhabit the drama and create it again, anew, with the infusion of their own humanity. That’s how you become a co-writer with me and part of the life of that piece. When a story, this dual creation, resonates within us, it broadens the library of ideas we draw from. And a luminous society moves in the direction of its readers. So what do you say? Shall we set off together and see what’s up ahead?

—cwh