Crash Course

Robin Black's path through loss and survival delivered her to the writer's life. Agoraphobia, the challenges of parenting a child with special needs, and the legacy of a formidable father all shaped that journey. In these deeply personal and instructive essays, the author of the internationally acclaimed "If I loved you, I would tell you this "and "Life Drawing "explores the making of art through the experiences of building a life. Engaging, challenging, and moving, "Crash Course "is full of insight into how to writeand why.

From "Autumn, 1972, A Moment at Which I Became a Writer":

"I sense, even now, the reverberations of a kind of shattering of my foundation and a quick rebuild, a change at a molecular level of who I understood myself to be. No longer someone who could look at another person without wondering what their life was like, but someone with a new curiosity about what people's stories might actually be."

Robin Black is the author of the story collection, "If I loved you, I would tell you this "and the novel "Life Drawing," both critically acclaimed, and both published in multiple languages. She has developed a loyal, enthusiastic following for her essays on life and writing, online and in such publications as the "New York Times," the "Chicago Tribune," and "O Magazine." She lives with her husband in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the house is always open for their three grown children.

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