"The difference between a word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and lightning."-Mark Twain
For more than 40 years, distinguished author Roger Rosenblatt has also been a teacher of writing, guiding students with the intelligence and generosity he brings to the page, and answering difficult questions from the mechanical-structure and style-to the profound: why write
Unless It Moves The Human Heart illuminates one semester in Rosenblatt's "Writing Everything" class. In a series of funny, intimate conversations, the students-a diverse mix of cultures and experiences, from Inur, a young Pakistani woman, to Sven, an ex-fighter pilot-grapple with the issues most important to narrative craft. Delving into their varied lives, Rosenblatt brings readers closer to them, emotionally investing us in their failures and triumphs.
More than a how-to for writers and aspiring writers, more than a memoir of teaching, Unless It Moves the Human Heart is an impassioned plea for the necessity of writing in our lives. As Rosenblatt wisely reminds us, "writing is the cure for the disease of living. Doing it may sometimes feel like an escape from the world, but at its best moments it is an act of rescue."