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Heather Tosteson

Goodreads Author

Born

in New York City, The United States

Website

http://www.universaltable.org

Genre

Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction

Influences

Innumerable!

Member Since

July 2008

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HEATHER TOSTESON, a fiction writer, poet and visual artist, is the author most recently of the poetry collection, Source Notes: Seventh Decade. She is also the author of the novels The Philosophical Transactions of Maria van Leeuwenhoek, Antoni's Dochter (1668-1696), which explores questions of sexual generation. She is also the author of the novel Visible Signs, and two collections of short stories, Germs of Truth and Hearts as Big as Fists & Other Stories. Her other two books of poetry are The Sanctity of the Moment: Poems from Four Decades, and Breathing in Portuguese, Living in English.

She is also the author and co-author of two non-fiction Wising Up Listening projects, most recently Sharing the Burden of Repair: Reentry After Mass Inc ...more

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Heather Tosteson I respect it! I don't believe in writing just to prove you can. I think we write when there is something we really need to know that we can only know …moreI respect it! I don't believe in writing just to prove you can. I think we write when there is something we really need to know that we can only know through the act of writing. Writing, at least as I understand and practice it, engages the whole person and poses questions for us that we have to grow into—questions of skill, insight, importance. Growth takes time and something beyond consciousness and conscious intent. The best way forward often is not the most direct way.

I work in different art forms—photography, sculpture, sound, and movement, so often I find that one of those other forms of expression will reach where words can't. Sometimes I just need to ground in the nitty gritty of daily life—loving my husband, children, and grandchildren, folding laundry, paying bills, testing cantaloupe at the farmer's market, calling a friend. I've also found that just beginning with the pitifulest, infinitesimal thing, a sentence, phrase, or single word, acts as a magnet, drawing other ideas, feelings, words to it—in their own good time
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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Heather Tosteson For years my only form of artistic expression was writing, but for the last twenty or years, I have used other art forms as well as writing, so I thin…moreFor years my only form of artistic expression was writing, but for the last twenty or years, I have used other art forms as well as writing, so I think one of the most rewarding things about being an artist, any kind of artist, is your relationship with the material you use—words, images, stories, or clay, paper, plaster, or the human voice and human body, or some combination of these. The material is intrinsically fascinating to me, especially how it connects whatever inside me that aches to be known with something beyond itself.

Words are intrinsically social, intrinsically visceral, they bring cultures and contexts deep inside us. The fact that we can also actively shape them to reveal, explore, connect with that which is uniquely ourselves or uniquely other never ceases to amaze me. I love reading, I love slipping into worlds that exist in some transformative space that is both accessible and always out of reach, substantial and immaterial. I love the intimacy of the connection this permits with the most open and mysterious part of another person. When I write a story, often all I feel while writing are the holes in the story. But when I'm through, when I'm reading it, I never get over the amazement that what has come from my pen now has an existence outside me, that it feels as solid as the wood floor beneath my feet, the other stories I love to slip inside for hours or days. Each time, my attention is turned to the mystery of where these stories come from and the amazing reality of their existence too.
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Heather Tosteson’s books

Average rating: 4.38 · 47 ratings · 21 reviews · 45 distinct works

	The Philosophical Transactions of Maria van Leeuwenhoek, Antoni's Dochter (1668-1696) 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Kindness of Strangers by Heather Tosteson (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Charles D. Brockett (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Anusha V.R. (Goodreads Author) 4.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	God Speaks My Language, Can You? 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Families: The Frontline of Pluralism by Heather Tosteson (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Charles D. Brockett (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Teresa Tumminello Brader (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Germs of Truth 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Connected: What Remains as We All Change by Heather Tosteson (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Charles D. Brockett (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Mitch Ellis (Goodreads Author) (Contributor ) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Visible Signs really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	SIBLINGS: Our First Macrocosm it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love After 70 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	View from the Bed: View from the Bedside by Heather Tosteson (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Phyllis A. Langton (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Charles D. Brockett (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars