Courageous Creativity: Advice and Encouragement for the Creative Life

Being creative takes courage.

It can be scary to create something. Before you can even work on your craft, you have to face down the fear of messing up or looking silly, the perfectionism that keeps you from even starting, and the negative voices inside your head that say you don't have anything valuable to offer.

Well, you do have something to offer! Being creative is a right, and in this book, National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr will help you get started. Her advice and encouragement are paired with exercises to help you face down your fears, let go of expectations, stop comparing yourself to others, and make your art with courage. A perfect gift for anyone who wants to be creative but doesn't know where to start, or for people who've been doing creativity for a while but want more inspiration, Courageous Creativity will empower readers to express themselves with self-confidence, bravery, and joy.

Sara Zarr is the acclaimed author of eight novels for young adults, including a collaborative novel with Tara Altebrando. Her most recent work is Goodbye from Nowhere published by HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray in April 2020. She's a National Book Award finalist and two-time Utah Book Award winner. Her books have been variously named to annual best books lists of the American Library Association, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, the Guardian, the International Reading Association, the New York Public Library, and Los Angeles Public Library, and have been translated into many languages. In 2010, she served as a judge for the National Book Award. In the academic year 2020-2021, she will join the faculty of the Seattle Pacific University Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA program.

Sara has written essays, creative nonfiction, and short fiction for Image, Hunger Mountain online, Response, Gather, and Relief Journal as well as for several anthologies, and has been a regular contributor to Image's daily Good Letters blog on faith, life, and culture. Sara also hosts and produces the This Creative Life podcast (2012-2015; 2020-). In fall 2014, she received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. Her first book, Story of a Girl, was made into a 2017 television movie directed by Kyra Sedgwick. She divides her time between Utah and California.