Finding Louise DeSalvo

I recently found out that one of my favorite former professors at Hunter, the awesome Louise DeSalvo, is recovering from surgery and chemotherapy for breast cancer. She is a brilliant academic and a writer richer in wisdom and experience than you'd think reasonable for one person. Back in 1999 (or thereabouts?) I took a class professor DeSalvo designed herself, called Writing the Wounded Body where we read a great, big stack of memoirs of illness, anorexia, rape, aging and loss and as a creative guide, her own brainchild, Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives. Her teaching and own writing have shaped so much of who I grew up to be that in my mind she's almost family.

She's been on my mind often in the past few weeks and so while poking about the web (instead of studying, of course), I googled her name and the coolest thing popped up: a personal blog she's been writing since the beginning of 2010. She's one of those writers whose every next book I wait for with baited breath, and because she is a serious writer and an academic, I never would have expected such a bounty: to be able to follow her path every few days or weeks, without five-year breaks between releases!

Aaaand, I'm pleased to present: Writing a Life.

Enjoy!