Wonder and Loss

Sam Meekings is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Northwestern University in Qatar. He is the author of Under Fishbone Clouds (2011, called ‘a poetic evocation of the country and its people’ by the New York Times), The Book of Crows (2012), and The Afterlives of Dr Gachet (2018). He has a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University, UK, and has taught writing at NYU (Global Campus) and the University of Chichester, UK. He is co-editor of the volumes The Place and the Writer (2021), The Scholarship of Creative Writing (2024) and The Creative Writing Workshop in the 21st Century (2026), all with Bloomsbury Academic. He researches the intersections of trauma and narrative, and the practices and processes of digital storytelling.

• IntroductionPart I: Writing as DiscoveryChapter 1: BeginningsChapter 2: Writing into the DarkChapter 3: Setting Myself on FireChapter 4: Home/SicknessChapter 5: Ten Ways of Thinking about the BodyChapter 6: PalimpsestPart II: Writing as TransformationChapter 7: ForgivenessChapter 8: MetaphorChapter 9: Embracing FailureChapter 10: Transformations[Midpoint Self-assessment]Part III: Writing as RenewalChapter 11: Fable and MythChapter 12: Personal EcologyChapter 13: Writing the UnknownChapter 14: Returning to ChildhoodChapter 15: Dreams and the Unconscious Part IV: Writing as MagicChapter 16: Talking with GhostsChapter 17: Pleasures and PassionsChapter 18: Poetic ToolsChapter 19: SummoningChapter 20: EndingsConclusionAdditional ResourcesAnnotated BibliographyIndex

There are many powerful grief memoirs and even more books about the craft of writing, but Wonder & Loss is the first book to help readers as they struggle with grief and write their own stories about love and loss. Sam Meekings shows, in fascinating detail, that the story of his younger brother’s early death is different from writing the story itself. Both stories are hauntingly brought to life in this beautifully written and memorable book.