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Full Product Details

Author:   Sarah Mesle
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.367kg
ISBN:  

9780226843629

ISBN 10:   0226843629
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   20 October 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

Preface: Who Part One: Why 1. Reasons for Writing 2. Writing About Feelings 3. Some Feelings About Writing in Public; Some Reasons for a Counterpublic Humanities 4. “But Is It Any Good?”: Or, Some Feminist Questions About Academic Writing Part Two: How 5. You Have to Practice 6. Who Is Your Girl and Where Is She Going? 7. You Write with Your Body, Which Keeps the Score 8. Pitches and Abstracts: Or, Some Ways of Building Worlds with Words 9. Know Your Noun 10. Arguments and Other Stories 11. The Subject of the Sentence 12. Give the Pull Quote 13. Burden of Proof 14. Red Rage 15. A Short Note About When We Don’t Need Your Thoughtful Essay 16. Critical Distance 17. Elements of Teaching Style 18. Elements of Teaching Style, Redux: Against the Thesis Statement 19. Small Acts of Finishing 20. Writing in Time Coda: Hospitality Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

“The world seems to be collapsing, the humanities are in crisis, but in this uncertain-at-best moment, Sarah Mesle offers writers a path not just toward hope but toward joy, as well. In this immensely readable, immensely useful book, Mesle reminds us why it remains worthwhile to sit down and put words to paper.” * Naomi Fry, staff writer, The New Yorker * “Fresh, nerdy, sober, quirky, and only sort of optimistic, Reasons and Feelings wrestles with the angle that could make writing better—or even simply possible—as the humanities totter around us.” * William Germano, author of ""On Revision"" * “With Reasons and Feelings, Mesle has given us a guide for the perplexed—for those who aren’t sure what intellectual life in the humanities will look like tomorrow, let alone several years from now; for those who aren’t certain how, why, or where to write about the books and ideas that matter to them; which is to say, for all of us. Writing as ally, therapist, expert, veteran, teacher, colleague, storyteller, and host, Mesle gives us a pioneer’s and survivor’s view of humanistic writing after the coming-apart of postwar structures and tells us that we’re not alone, that we’re (still) in this together.” * Nicholas Dames, coeditor in chief of Public Books *

“The world seems to be collapsing, the humanities are in crisis, but in this uncertain-at-best moment, Sarah Mesle offers writers a path not just toward hope, but toward joy, as well. In this immensely readable, immensely useful book, Mesle reminds us why it remains worthwhile to sit down and put words to paper.” * Naomi Fry, staff writer, The New Yorker * “Fresh, nerdy, sober, quirky, and only sort of optimistic, Reasons and Feelings wrestles with the angle that could make writing better—or even simply possible—as the humanities totter around us.” * William Germano, author of ""On Revision"" * “With Reasons and Feelings, Mesle has given us a guide for the perplexed—for those who aren’t sure what intellectual life in the humanities will look like tomorrow, let alone several years from now; for those who aren’t certain how, why, or where to write about the books and ideas that matter to them; which is to say, for all of us. Writing as ally, therapist, expert, veteran, teacher, colleague, storyteller, and host, Mesle gives us a pioneer’s and survivor’s view of humanistic writing after the coming-apart of postwar structures, and tells us that we’re not alone, that we’re (still) in this together.” * Nicholas Dames, author of ""The Chapter"" *

Author Information

Sarah Mesle is a professor of writing at the University of Southern California. The former senior humanities editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, where she is also a regular contributor, Mesle is the founding coeditor of the LARB channel Avidly and the short-book series Avidly Reads. Mesle's writing has also appeared in venues ranging from Studies in American Fiction to InStyle to The New York Times Magazine.

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