Overview

Willingness: A Writer' s Meditations on Crossing the Flood invites wonder, inspires joy, and encourages artists of all kinds to embrace the enigmas that fuel creativity. A posthumous collection drawn from legendary author and mentor Kevin "" Mc"" McIlvoy' s four decades of teaching, lecturing, and editing, Willingness is a testament to his "" process of searching"" for truth: the "" dark and luminous beauty"" that pulses at the deepest heart of human experience- and authentic art. The only nonfiction book among his ten published works of fiction and poetry, Willingness was in process at the time of Mc' s sudden death in 2022. His wife, the writer Christine Hale, completed it by arranging excerpts from lectures, notes, handouts, essays, and interviews. Mc' s colleagues and students recognized in him a strange genius; Willingness offers readers- those meeting him here for the first time and long-time followers longing to reconnect- the associative, recursive, branching-rather-than-arriving, mind-expanding experience of hearing him speak. "" A gift,"" from the capacious heart and mind of McIlvoy, writes Peter Turchi in his introduction, Willingness is a book not on how to write but how to keep writing.

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Peter Turchi is the author of seven books and the co-editor of three anthologies. His books include (Don't) Stop Me if You've Heard This Before; A Muse and A Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery, and Magic; Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer. He has also co-edited, with Andrea Barrett, A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on Their Craft, The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work and, with Charles Baxter, Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life. He lives in Houston, TX. Christine Hale is the author of a novel, Basil' s Dream (Livingston Press, 2009), and a memoir, A Piece of Sky, A Grain of Rice (Apprentice House Press, 2016). Her short fiction and nonfiction pieces have appeared in numerous journals, including Arts & Letters, The Sun, Still, Hippocampus Magazine, and Prime Number Magazine. Kevin McIlvoy (1953 2022) was the author of ten books, including One Kind Favor (WTAW Press) and the story collection The Complete History of New Mexico (Graywolf). His work appeared in Harper' s, Ploughshares, and The Missouri Review. He received an NEA Fellowship and taught for decades in the MFA programs at Warren Wilson College and New Mexico State University. For 27 years, he was editor in chief of Puerto del Sol. McIlvoy served on the Board of Directors of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

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