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Writing from the Center
" . . . essays of substance and beauty, and they belong beside the work of Annie Dillard, Samuel Pickering, and Wendell Berry." ―Library Journal
"[Sanders] eloquently expresses his love of the land and the responsibility he feels for preventing further erosion of our natural resources . . . " ―Publishers Weekly
"Skillfully written in a clear, unmannered style refreshingly devoid of irony and hollow cleverness, the author starts with everyday experiences and gleans from them larger truths." ―The Christian Science Monitor
"[These] essays are so good one is tempted to stand up and applaud after reading them. . . . Sanders is a modern day prospector who finds gems of spiritual meaning in both familiar and unusual places." ―Body Mind Spirit
Writing from the Center is about one very fine writer's quest for a meaningful and moral life. Lannan Literary Award winner Scott Sanders (Secrets of the Universe, Staying Put, A Paradise of Bombs) seeks and describes a center that is geographical, emotional, artistic, and spiritual―and is rooted in place. The geography is midwestern, the impulses are universal.
"The earth needs fewer tourists and more inhabitants, it seems to me―fewer people who float about in bubbles of money and more people committed to knowing and tending their home ground." ―Scott Russell Sanders, from the book
"[Sanders] eloquently expresses his love of the land and the responsibility he feels for preventing further erosion of our natural resources . . . " ―Publishers Weekly
"Skillfully written in a clear, unmannered style refreshingly devoid of irony and hollow cleverness, the author starts with everyday experiences and gleans from them larger truths." ―The Christian Science Monitor
"[These] essays are so good one is tempted to stand up and applaud after reading them. . . . Sanders is a modern day prospector who finds gems of spiritual meaning in both familiar and unusual places." ―Body Mind Spirit
Writing from the Center is about one very fine writer's quest for a meaningful and moral life. Lannan Literary Award winner Scott Sanders (Secrets of the Universe, Staying Put, A Paradise of Bombs) seeks and describes a center that is geographical, emotional, artistic, and spiritual―and is rooted in place. The geography is midwestern, the impulses are universal.
"The earth needs fewer tourists and more inhabitants, it seems to me―fewer people who float about in bubbles of money and more people committed to knowing and tending their home ground." ―Scott Russell Sanders, from the book
216 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 1995
10 people are currently reading
195 people want to read
About the author
Scott Russell Sanders
72 books128 followersScott Russell Sanders is the award-winning author of A Private History of Awe, Hunting for Hope, A Conservationist Manifesto, Dancing in Dreamtime, and two dozen other books of fiction, personal narrative, and essays. His father came from a family of cotton farmers in Mississippi, his mother from an immigrant doctor’s family in Chicago. He spent his early childhood in Tennessee and his school years in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Cambridge, England.
In his writing he is concerned with our place in nature, the practice of community, and the search for a spiritual path. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, have reared two children in their hometown of Bloomington, in the hardwood hill country of southern Indiana. You can visit Scott at www.scottrussellsanders.com.
In August 2020, Counterpoint Press will publish his new collection of essays, The Way of Imagination, a reflection on healing and renewal in a time of climate disruption. He is currently at work on a collection of short stories inspired by photographs.
In his writing he is concerned with our place in nature, the practice of community, and the search for a spiritual path. He and his wife, Ruth, a biochemist, have reared two children in their hometown of Bloomington, in the hardwood hill country of southern Indiana. You can visit Scott at www.scottrussellsanders.com.
In August 2020, Counterpoint Press will publish his new collection of essays, The Way of Imagination, a reflection on healing and renewal in a time of climate disruption. He is currently at work on a collection of short stories inspired by photographs.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 20, 2025
“Some editors and fellow writers have asked me, directly or indirectly, how I can bear to live in a backwater. I tell them there are no backwaters. There is only one river, and we are all in it” (Sanders 179).
December 15, 2010
From News of the Wild
"What did you find?" my father would ask when I returned from a camping trip or an after-dinner stroll. And I would show him a fossil or feather, tell him how sun lit up the leaves of a hickory, how a skunk looked me over; I would recall for him the taste of elderberries or the rush of wind in white pines or the crunch of locust shells underfoot. Only in that sharing of what I had found was the journey completed, the circle closed.
I have put some version of my father's question to both of my children, my son Jesse as well as Eva, from the time they could toddle. What did you find? What did you see? What's out there?
December 29, 2025
There’s a nice flow with the words in this book and the manner of how Sanders expresses himself. He is a writer. But what then is a writer? As a writing professor at a University, Sanders has a point of view.
There’s the craft side of writing. Good English, non-cliche writing, treating words and expressions somewhat as a poet might, engaging readers with a good story as an entertainer might. Alternatively, the craft of writing also tells us what a good writer avoids: e.g. fancy words the intent of which is to “dazzle your reader” with “verbal hot dogging.” Sanders admits that he tended toward these writing pitfalls early on, as an “aspiring writer” before settling down with a more natural and comfortable style that this book exhibits, but he’s critical of what he sees coming out of the university writing programs these days. Sanders quotes one observer to say that there’s a distinction between competence and vision when it comes to writing, and writing schools these days lack the latter. Sanders quotes another to say of contemporary fiction, “‘in the Detroits of our culture, the manufacturer of writers continues.’” Of poetry, another observer comments: “‘I detest the clever verse disguised as poetry that emanates so frequently from the academic poetry factories….’” And Donald Hall, Sanders says, “Likens writing classes to sweatshops, assembly lines, and fast food franchises….mass producing bland verse, which Hall refers to, unlovingly, as McPoems….and modish fiction and poetry [that] will be featured in next year’s Salvation Army book sale.”
Picking up on the lack of “vision” theme, I sense a good amount of writing these days seems infected with “good writing,” as if writing well is more important than the substance of what is conveyed, to the point that writing feels like manipulation. A related issue is that being a writer seems to be the goal, rather than having something important to say, with writing being the vehicle for expressing it. Is there a problem with the “aspiring writer” concept, as if the goal is to write, but not necessarily because one has something worthy to say? When Sanders started early on, he seemed to fall into that trap, fretting about the lack of recognition about what he was putting out there, to the point that he contemplated suicide, adding, oddly, “who hasn’t?” Isn’t that falling into the trap of catering to popular demand, where one is dependent on their validation? If a writer has something important to say, expressing it should be its own reward, not the lack of attention it gets.
As he settled into maturity, Sanders moved toward the substance of writing - of what was to be conveyed and here I had a mixed reaction. Sanders got a lot of questions about his choice to settle down on his home turf in the Midwest (Indiana), as this was far from the coastal “writing centers” and the Midwest was perceived to be infected with parochialism and hicks. Sanders is good about sticking up for his Midwest roots and the value of being rooted in a place. This is one of his intended meanings about writing from the center (the title of this book). There’s a lot of solid Midwestern values and common sense that come out of this book.
Even so, there’s a troubling understory in this book that is problematic. Sanders’ focus is his concern about the Earth and how shabbily we treat it. There’s nothing new here. It’s been said many times by many before. While Sanders echoes his concern, his various “we must” dicta quickly gets tiring, as if venting is enough. There’s nothing easier than to sit on the sideline, as a writer, and proclaim what ought to be done. This is mostly a preaching to the choir type of thing without any sense about how difficult it is in a democracy for elected leaders who care to actually move the needle even slightly in the right direction because they must deal with voters who care about nothing much more than the here and now.
So there’s that, but there’s the even more troubling aspect to Sanders’ writing in that he says his job as a writer is to unearth universal truths and share them with the world. The goal of a writer is “to come fully awake.” Writing for him is a “spiritual practice” and “our job is to open the jar, or let it be opened, so that a greater reality may come streaming in.” What that reality entails is that we come from a “transcendent source” as the ground of our being, acknowledging “the presence of more-than-personal meaning and power.” This is the other intended meaning of Sanders’ writing from the center. “Find your way to that ultimate ground, root your way there, and you will have something worth saying.” If the mystics are right, and Sanders thinks they are, “we can have no more important task than to seek the center. Here is the honey, here is the slippery essence that eludes all language.”
While Sanders is overt in letting his readers know where he’s coming from, that perspective is troubling for those who are not in the same place. Perhaps the clue comes from his story about living in the dorm in college where he makes a point of putting up a poster of the periodic table, “as a counterpoint of sorts to the pin-ups beside my roommate's bed.” There is a holier-than-thou tinge to the way he tells this story, as if he has the Truth and others do not.
There’s the craft side of writing. Good English, non-cliche writing, treating words and expressions somewhat as a poet might, engaging readers with a good story as an entertainer might. Alternatively, the craft of writing also tells us what a good writer avoids: e.g. fancy words the intent of which is to “dazzle your reader” with “verbal hot dogging.” Sanders admits that he tended toward these writing pitfalls early on, as an “aspiring writer” before settling down with a more natural and comfortable style that this book exhibits, but he’s critical of what he sees coming out of the university writing programs these days. Sanders quotes one observer to say that there’s a distinction between competence and vision when it comes to writing, and writing schools these days lack the latter. Sanders quotes another to say of contemporary fiction, “‘in the Detroits of our culture, the manufacturer of writers continues.’” Of poetry, another observer comments: “‘I detest the clever verse disguised as poetry that emanates so frequently from the academic poetry factories….’” And Donald Hall, Sanders says, “Likens writing classes to sweatshops, assembly lines, and fast food franchises….mass producing bland verse, which Hall refers to, unlovingly, as McPoems….and modish fiction and poetry [that] will be featured in next year’s Salvation Army book sale.”
Picking up on the lack of “vision” theme, I sense a good amount of writing these days seems infected with “good writing,” as if writing well is more important than the substance of what is conveyed, to the point that writing feels like manipulation. A related issue is that being a writer seems to be the goal, rather than having something important to say, with writing being the vehicle for expressing it. Is there a problem with the “aspiring writer” concept, as if the goal is to write, but not necessarily because one has something worthy to say? When Sanders started early on, he seemed to fall into that trap, fretting about the lack of recognition about what he was putting out there, to the point that he contemplated suicide, adding, oddly, “who hasn’t?” Isn’t that falling into the trap of catering to popular demand, where one is dependent on their validation? If a writer has something important to say, expressing it should be its own reward, not the lack of attention it gets.
As he settled into maturity, Sanders moved toward the substance of writing - of what was to be conveyed and here I had a mixed reaction. Sanders got a lot of questions about his choice to settle down on his home turf in the Midwest (Indiana), as this was far from the coastal “writing centers” and the Midwest was perceived to be infected with parochialism and hicks. Sanders is good about sticking up for his Midwest roots and the value of being rooted in a place. This is one of his intended meanings about writing from the center (the title of this book). There’s a lot of solid Midwestern values and common sense that come out of this book.
Even so, there’s a troubling understory in this book that is problematic. Sanders’ focus is his concern about the Earth and how shabbily we treat it. There’s nothing new here. It’s been said many times by many before. While Sanders echoes his concern, his various “we must” dicta quickly gets tiring, as if venting is enough. There’s nothing easier than to sit on the sideline, as a writer, and proclaim what ought to be done. This is mostly a preaching to the choir type of thing without any sense about how difficult it is in a democracy for elected leaders who care to actually move the needle even slightly in the right direction because they must deal with voters who care about nothing much more than the here and now.
So there’s that, but there’s the even more troubling aspect to Sanders’ writing in that he says his job as a writer is to unearth universal truths and share them with the world. The goal of a writer is “to come fully awake.” Writing for him is a “spiritual practice” and “our job is to open the jar, or let it be opened, so that a greater reality may come streaming in.” What that reality entails is that we come from a “transcendent source” as the ground of our being, acknowledging “the presence of more-than-personal meaning and power.” This is the other intended meaning of Sanders’ writing from the center. “Find your way to that ultimate ground, root your way there, and you will have something worth saying.” If the mystics are right, and Sanders thinks they are, “we can have no more important task than to seek the center. Here is the honey, here is the slippery essence that eludes all language.”
While Sanders is overt in letting his readers know where he’s coming from, that perspective is troubling for those who are not in the same place. Perhaps the clue comes from his story about living in the dorm in college where he makes a point of putting up a poster of the periodic table, “as a counterpoint of sorts to the pin-ups beside my roommate's bed.” There is a holier-than-thou tinge to the way he tells this story, as if he has the Truth and others do not.
August 8, 2017
Smoothly written, a lovely flow of a book that entices the reader in and won't let you go until the end. Loved it.
June 30, 2019
I appreciated Sanders' clear, graceful prose, especially just after reading another book of essays (Rich People Things by Chris Lehmann) where the writing was so convoluted and ranty. Still, a couple of these essays also started to resemble sermons. "Sanctuary," while very well written, evokes Wendell Berry's "The Unforeseen Wilderness" (one of my favorite books) too much for my comfort. The first two essays in the collection and the title essay are the strongest in my opinion. Sanders has written a couple other essay collections -- I'd like to read one of those someday.
September 6, 2018
This is the first book I bought when I moved to Bloomington, Indiana, thirteen years ago, and it's what I'm turning to know as I contemplate the Midwest. Scott has given me so much in learning about how to be a writer and an inhabitant. "I write from within a family, a community, and a landscape, concentric rings of duty and possibility. I refuse to separate my search for a way of writing from my search for a way of living."
October 15, 2022
i was made to read this book for my first year seminar, so obviously i didn’t think i would enjoy it. i was very wrong.
much of what sanders says in this book resonated with me deep down. my copy is filled with highlighter and annotations. there are clearly things we disagree on, but it didn’t take me out of what i was reading. it was also nice, as a midwesterner, to see places that i recognize! that doesn’t normally happen.
much of what sanders says in this book resonated with me deep down. my copy is filled with highlighter and annotations. there are clearly things we disagree on, but it didn’t take me out of what i was reading. it was also nice, as a midwesterner, to see places that i recognize! that doesn’t normally happen.
February 3, 2019
A favorite writer, Sanders is a wise observer. Deeply philosophical and centered, a writer’s writer who reminds me of Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, Michael Perry, and others. The best writers make us see where we’re from a little more clearly. Though he’s not from here, he could be. Though he could be from anywhere. If you haven’t read him, you should.
June 7, 2016
I picked up this little gem of a book for 25 cents in a thrift shop in Nashville, IN, a short trip away from Bloomington where the author is (or was at the time of publication) a professor of English at Indiana University. This is proof that good things can be found in unexpected places.
In a collection of a dozen essays, the author explores what it is to live a "meaningful, gathered life in a world that seems broken and scattered." A native Midwesterner (as am I), the author celebrates life in this place in Creation, a place that is often dismissed by those living on the coasts as "fly over country." His words about living here in the Heartland often made my heart and soul shout, "Yes, yes -- that's what I feel, too!" and I am so grateful to him for sharing the words that can express these feelings so much more eloquently than I.
In his words, "My home territory is southern Indiana, in the watershed of the Ohio River, and so, in writing about where I belong, I focus on the landscape and culture of the Midwest. The skies in my pages are filled with thunderstorms and red-tailed hawks, the creeks are bordered by limestone bluffs, the fields are planted in soybeans and corn, the woods are thick with grapevines and hickories. . . . (but) Although I speak of the Midwest, my deeper subject is our need to belong somewhere with a full heart, wherever our place may be, whoever our people may be." In other words, to live a life that is whole and balanced, full of love and meaning -- to live always "from the center."
In a collection of a dozen essays, the author explores what it is to live a "meaningful, gathered life in a world that seems broken and scattered." A native Midwesterner (as am I), the author celebrates life in this place in Creation, a place that is often dismissed by those living on the coasts as "fly over country." His words about living here in the Heartland often made my heart and soul shout, "Yes, yes -- that's what I feel, too!" and I am so grateful to him for sharing the words that can express these feelings so much more eloquently than I.
In his words, "My home territory is southern Indiana, in the watershed of the Ohio River, and so, in writing about where I belong, I focus on the landscape and culture of the Midwest. The skies in my pages are filled with thunderstorms and red-tailed hawks, the creeks are bordered by limestone bluffs, the fields are planted in soybeans and corn, the woods are thick with grapevines and hickories. . . . (but) Although I speak of the Midwest, my deeper subject is our need to belong somewhere with a full heart, wherever our place may be, whoever our people may be." In other words, to live a life that is whole and balanced, full of love and meaning -- to live always "from the center."
December 28, 2010
Scott Russell Sanders visited our local community college recently. This book is a series of essays describing his quest for a meaningful life. My favorite is titled Letter to a Reader. He reveals more of how he became a writer after considering a career in Science. He shares the how and when of his writing...and due to his early life in near poverty, he always had to have a day job (teaching)to support himself and his family. He wrote in many genres: short stories, personal essays, and science fiction,historical fiction and children's books while his novels were being considered for publication.
November 6, 2008
These introspective essays touched me with their slightly melancholic prose, but there was always and underlying message of goodness, joy, contentment. I remember the story about the buckeye, rubbed smooth and dark - like the eye of the buck from where it hails it name. This story, read to me my freshman year of college by my lit prof, transformed my perspective on literature and the world. Definitely a must read for anyone who wants to gain perspective and walk in someone else shoes, if only for a moment. I place this book up there with L'Engle's 'Circle of Quiet'.
January 27, 2012
Fabulous. I am always chewing on some line from "Buckeye" or "Imagining the Midwest." (Some of the essays are a tad dull at times, but Scott's voice is enjoyable and trustworthy--he's always going to circle back around to wisdom). Now that I'm living in the Midwest, Sanders' work has become so meaningful to me. And Scott is a tremendous guy, too. He lives in and writes about place better than almost anyone save Saint Wendell, and deserves to be known to the widest possible audience.
May 25, 2015
Who reads essays these days? I got this book through a most circuitous process, and I"m so glad I did. Nothing like an excellent essay to get your thoughts provoked, and to reset your mind into a deep, critical place. Scott Russell Sanders is an excellent writer, and, really, he provoked so much activity in my gray matter that I almost feel like writing my own book of essays in response. I really enjoyed his works, especially "Faith and Work."
February 18, 2010
One of those serendipitous ventures into the realm of the writer's mind as it has happened and how it is ongoing, organic, and that it leads to the center of your own writing integrity, applicable towards just about everyone's situation as a writer. And the stories along the way nudge you the right way.
August 30, 2014
I haven't met too many people that have moved from the Midwest that don't haughtily praise the virtues of living somewhere else. But the Midwest is a great place to live, dammit, and this book is a loving ode to the natural beauty of the area filled with profound ecological and spiritual meditations. I was not fond of the survey on the literature of the Midwest. The rest I enjoyed.
December 27, 2018
Phenomenal book celebrating life, writing, nature, the Midwest. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and am grateful it was recommended to me. My only issue was that by the end, some of the ideas felt redundant, and I was tired of reading them (mostly that in general, famous authors flee the Midwest, and that Sanders in response calls for us to remain).
February 16, 2013
This was required reading in my first English course as an undergraduate. Some good prose, but I never quite fell for it. 2.5 stars.
August 19, 2012
What's wrong with writing from a sound, centered state, both professionally and personally? Nothing, argues Scott Russell Sanders in a series if well-reasoned, well-written essays. I agree.
November 20, 2015
not my cup of tea!
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May 11, 2015Exactly what I needed to read right now.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews