Wrong Way to Save Your Life

Stielstra is a masterful essayist. Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist and HungerFrom an important new writer comes this powerful collection of personal essays on fear, creativity, art, faith, academia, the Internet, and justice.In this poignantand incitingcollection of literary essays, Megan Stielstra tells stories to ward off fears both personal and universal as she grapples toward a better way to live.In her titular piece The Wrong Way To Save Your Life, she answers the question ofwhat has value in our livesa question no longer rhetorical when the apartment above her familys goes up in flames.Here is My Heart sheds light on Megans close relationship with her father, whosecontinued insistence on climbingmountains despite a series of heart attacks leads the authorto dissectdeer hearts in a poetic attempt tointerrogate her own feelings about mortality.Whether she's imagining the implications of open-carry laws on college campuses,recounting the story of going underwater on the mortgage ofherfirst home,or revealing the unexpected pains and joysof marriage and motherhood, Stielstra's work informs, impels, enlightens, and embraces us all.The result is something beautifulthis story, her courage, and, potentially, our own.Intellectually fierce and viscerally intimate, Megan Stielstra's voice is witty, wise, warm, and above all, achingly human.