Writing, as we know, can be hard and lonely work and we all need that feeling of encouraging “hands on our backs” sometimes. I started 2022 by taking a three-month online essay writing course for women through the University of Washington, which introduced me to authors I either hadn’t heard of, or hadn’t delved deeply into. This is a list of the new-to-me women whose writing literally feels like supportive hands on my back:

Melissa Febos-

I’ve read all four of her books and as many essays and articles that I can get my hands on. Finding out she used to be a Dominatrix and a heroin user back in the day only added to her appeal for me. https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/537/les-calanques

Elissa Washuta-

The depth and intricacy of her writing astounds me. Reading her essays is like watching Olympic figure skating. You feel at once carried away by what looks like the effortlessness of it, but you know that to achieve this level of brilliance, it’s decades of ass in seat work. https://theoffingmag.com/here-you-are/white-city/

Margot Kahn-

Her essay about her crush on the moving van guy–oh my God, so universal and relatable.https://www.margotkahn.com/this-is-the-place

Jane Wong-I haven’t read a ton of her work yet but we read her essay, “A Family Business,” in class and Wow! Just Wow! https://janewongwriter.com/bio

Paulette Perhatch-

A master of writing online articles that garner over a million reads. The one that allegedly launched her career into the online stratosphere is “The Story of A Fuck Off Fund.” https://www.thebillfold.com/2016/01/a-story-of-a-fuck-off-fund/#.hz4t8emwj

In September I was fortunate enough to take a writing workshop in Paris with author Chloe Caldwell who introduced me to the term “autofiction.” This changed EVERYTHING for me. I’ve been grappling for years trying to decide whether to publish my work as fiction or nonfiction but both genres just didn’t feel right. (Caldwell recently told one of my writer friends to stay genre-fluid which I think is brilliant!)

Along comes Autofiction. A little bit of both. According to what I learnt in author Frances Badalamenti’s autofiction class, (which was fantastic!) the term was first coined by the French. (Hello! Serendipity!) Master writer Lucia Berlin, (who is sadly no longer with us) is an example of autofiction. I’ve been studying her book, “A Manual For Cleaning Women,” and look forward to reading her other works.

Diana Spechler-

To be fair, Diana is not a new-to-me writer, I met her a few years back when we both performed onstage at TalkStory, the San Miguel Writers Conference’s Storytelling Event, but her Substack “Dispatches from the Road,” which I subscribe to, was new to me. Travel writing with guts and vulnerability. Just my vibe.

A.J. Bermudez-

Not an essayist per se, I discovered this fiction/screenwriter by way of Electric Literature’s “Recommended Reading.” I read “Bottle Girl,” and immediately purchased her debut collection of short stories, “Stories No One Hopes Are About Them,” which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award.

Suleika Jaouad-

I can’t remember where or how I stumbled across this author, but once I did I dove in head-first. I bought her heart-breaking and brilliant memoir, “Between Two Kingdoms,” and signed up for her online writing group, “The Isolation Journals.”

I’ll never forget the day I came to realise that the Jon she writes about in her memoir is her husband Jon Batiste whom I had just discovered that day by way of his sweeping Grammy wins!

Magic when two confluences merge like that!

I’d love to hear what recent literary discoveries stoke your creative fires.