Overview

"At the ripe age of forty, when Alexis Paige was finally diagnosed with ADHD-Inattentive Type, she rolled her eyes even before the doctor could finish spelling out her new marching orders: ""The goal now,"" he said, ""is to learn how to work smart, not hard."" ""But that doesn't sound like any fun,"" she said. She was going to have to do this, too-ironically, inexplicably, comically-as she did everything else, the hard way. Part memoir, part craft guide, Work Hard, Not Smart, shows how Alexis lives her messy literary life. She invites you to step into her mismatched shoes. And if you do, you'll find the writing companion you've been looking for."

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9781925965766

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Reviews

"""With her accustomed wit and insight, Alexis Paige has written a memoir that is also a craft book (or a craft book that is also a memoir--you choose, Alexis), a guide to leading a writing life for those of us whose days are messier and more hectic than most books of writing advice allow for. I recommend this book to any writer whose life isn't spent in a cabin by a lake, or a room of their own, but out doing the complicated work of being a person in this world."" Sarah Einstein, American essayist and recipient of the Pushcart Prize and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction for Mot: A Memoir ""With equal servings of humor and candor, Alexis Paige opens a window to her writing life and demystifies the idea that writers live in a fairytale world of ongoing success and creative contentment. Instead, she leads us through the often uncertain, sometimes treacherous, deeply vulnerable, and always messy, territory that maps the land in which most writers live. Part memoir, part craft guide, her book inspires us to explore and make mistakes, to set attainable goals, to ask for help, and to savor the rewards that inevitably surface when we keep returning to the chair. I feel like I've been given the gift of companionship that I didn't even know I was looking for."" Melanie Brooks, author of Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma ""In Work Hard Not Smart: How to Make a Messy Literary Life, Alexis Paige shows us how a subtle shift in perspective will sometimes reveal that the writer's life we yearn for and the writer's life we live are actually one and the same. Thoughtful, instructive, profoundly useful-not to mention spit-out-your-drink funny-Work Hard Not Smart is an amazingly alive craft book that redefines what a craft book can be. If you read one book on writing this year, make it this one. You'll emerge a better writer-and an even better human."" Timothy J. Hillegonds, author of The Distance Between"

With her accustomed wit and insight, Alexis Paige has written a memoir that is also a craft book (or a craft book that is also a memoir--you choose, Alexis), a guide to leading a writing life for those of us whose days are messier and more hectic than most books of writing advice allow for. I recommend this book to any writer whose life isn't spent in a cabin by a lake, or a room of their own, but out doing the complicated work of being a person in this world. Sarah Einstein, American essayist and recipient of the Pushcart Prize and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction for Mot: A Memoir With equal servings of humor and candor, Alexis Paige opens a window to her writing life and demystifies the idea that writers live in a fairytale world of ongoing success and creative contentment. Instead, she leads us through the often uncertain, sometimes treacherous, deeply vulnerable, and always messy, territory that maps the land in which most writers live. Part memoir, part craft guide, her book inspires us to explore and make mistakes, to set attainable goals, to ask for help, and to savor the rewards that inevitably surface when we keep returning to the chair. I feel like I've been given the gift of companionship that I didn't even know I was looking for. Melanie Brooks, author of Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma In Work Hard Not Smart: How to Make a Messy Literary Life, Alexis Paige shows us how a subtle shift in perspective will sometimes reveal that the writer's life we yearn for and the writer's life we live are actually one and the same. Thoughtful, instructive, profoundly useful-not to mention spit-out-your-drink funny-Work Hard Not Smart is an amazingly alive craft book that redefines what a craft book can be. If you read one book on writing this year, make it this one. You'll emerge a better writer-and an even better human. Timothy J. Hillegonds, author of The Distance Between

Author Information

Alexis Paige is the author of the craft memoir, Work Hard, Not Smart, and the memoir in vignettes, Not a Place on Any Map, both from Vine Leaves Press. Winner of the New Millennium Nonfiction Prize, Paige has also received notable mentions in Best American Essays and multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Assistant professor of English at Vermont Technical College, she holds an MA in poetry from San Francisco State University and an MFA in nonfiction from the Stonecoast Creative Writing Program of the University of Southern Maine. Paige lives in Vermont with her husband and their two unemployed dogs. Visit Alexis: alexispaigeauthor.com

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