University of Akron Press to Publish A Mollusk Without a Shell: Essays on Self-Care for Writers, Edited by Julie Brooks Barbour and Mary Biddinger

The University of Akron Press is pleased to announce that it will publish A Mollusk Without a Shell: Essays on Self-Care for Writers, edited by Julie Brooks Barbour and Mary Biddinger, in the Akron Series in Contemporary Poetics. This volume features essays by ten writers who share advice on caring for the artist behind the creative work. Each essayist also includes a writing prompt to help spark inspiration for readers. The University of Akron Press plans to release the book in Spring 2024. 

The contributors to this volume are Kelli Russell Agodon, Abayomi Animashaun, Emily Corwin, Mixby Dickon, Sarah Freligh, Suzanne Frischkorn, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Charles Jensen, Lee Ann Roripaugh, and Jenny Sadre-Orafai. The editors send gratitude to contributor Lee Ann Roripaugh for inspiring the book’s title.

A Mollusk Without a Shell: Essays on Self-Care for Writers differs from other books on the writing craft because its focus is on maintaining the well-being of the writer, a vital part of the creative process that is often overlooked. Barbour and Biddinger initiated this project to seek advice from writers they admire, hoping to receive guidance to share with a wide audience. This volume is ideal for writers at various stages in their careers, from beginners to midcareer writers to those returning to writing after time away.

The cover for A Mollusk Without a Shell: Essays on Self-Care for Writers was created by Rhye Pirie, a senior in The University of Akron’s Myers School of Art and student assistant at the University of Akron Press. Pirie is a graphic designer and printmaker creating media for print and digital platforms in Northeast Ohio. Indulging in a love for the whimsical and unconventional, their design process blends digital and traditional mediums to produce engaging works with an emphasis on forging tactile experiences in an increasingly digital world.

Julie Brooks Barbour’s most recent poetry collection is Haunted City (Kelsay Books, 2017). Her work has appeared in South Dakota Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Whale Road Review, Escape Into Life, Moon City Review, Gone Lawn, Menacing Hedge, and Allium, A Journal of Poetry and Prose. She teaches writing at Lake Superior State University where she edits the journal Border Crossing.

Mary Biddinger’s most recent poetry collection is Department of Elegy (Black Lawrence Press, 2022). Her poems have appeared in a variety of journals, including Diode, A Dozen Nothing, and Pithead Chapel, and have been featured on Poetry Daily and The Slowdown. Biddinger’s flash fiction has been published in Always Crashing, DIAGRAM, Gone Lawn, and Southern Indiana Review, among others. She teaches creative writing at the University of Akron and in the NEOMFA program, and serves as poetry editor for the University of Akron Press.

For queries regarding A Mollusk Without a Shell: Essays on Self-Care for Writers, including course adoptions, please email uapress@uakron.edu.