Millions of Suns: On Writing and Life

by Sharon Fagan McDermott, M.C. Benner Dixon

Millions of Suns is an open invitation for all writers to create something new. Each chapter features a pair of essays-in-dialogue between two working artists, Sharon Fagan McDermott and M. C. Benner Dixon, which addresses a specific writing element such as metaphor, inspiration, place, surprise, or imagery. These hybrid essays reveal how two very different writers approach the building blocks of their craft. Explore how white space intersects with grief, how the act of reading changes over a lifetime, or how “familiarity, in life and in stories, invites us in and gives us a hand to hold.” Witness the ways that race and climate change find their way onto the page. Learn how memory can be an act of betrayal or healing.



With decades of combined teaching experience, McDermott and Benner Dixon share practical craft-of-writing advice with the reader, including over fifty engaging writing prompts to spark the creative process. These prompts guide readers toward the freedom and joy that comes with finding one’s authentic voice. Embracing both the painful and the playful, Millions of Suns is an ideal text for classrooms, professional development, or daily writing practice. Through humor, lyricism, and poignancy, the fundamental message of the book remains the same for newcomers and career authors. Let Millions of Suns open a door for you into your creative work, inviting imagination, memory, and inspiration into your writing life.

Genres: Writing, Essays

189 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2023

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a review. It is my own book, so I have read the essays and writing prompts within it 1,000 times at this point. I love creative writing; I have loved teaching creative writing at the university and high school level. And I love this book for personal reasons--my first book of essays after publishing many collections of poems; my first book co-authored with a dear colleague and friend M. Christine Benner Dixon; and a book that satisfied my own heart in terms of being able to write the stories I've wanted to write in an authentic, sometimes vulnerable voice. But, what I've been most excited about at this point is that now that it is "in the world," I'm hearing from so many readers about how the book has inspired 'THEM," inspired their own good writing, whether that be poems, essays, stories or hybrid pieces. All my adult life, I have tried to motivate others to find and hone their own voices on the page, to tell their own key stories, to try and bring readers to the page with their own lively descriptions of poignant reflections. I'm hoping this little gem of a book (I do feel very affectionate toward it) finds itself in a lot of people's hands--and in turn--inspires others into their own joyous communion with the art and act of creative writing!!

[Timons Esaias · Rating 5 out of 5]

These authors are local to me (I heard McDermott read at "Poets Read the World" on Thursday, and Dixon was a presenter at Confluence in July), but I don't owe either of them any favors, so this review can probably be taken at face value.

I found this work to be realistic, helpful, and in line with my own methods of teaching, and (except for a "honing in" on page 29, and a "shimmying" that should be "shinnying" on page 59) I can approve it for classroom use. I am adding it to my Recommended list of writing manuals, especially because it is as much about the writing life as about the elements of writing. (Oh, and I also admire the cover.)(Which is neither here nor there, but it's lovely and striking.)

I've been teaching writing for more than two decades, but I resist reading writing manuals unless I need them to prepare a major online workshop, and then I'm doing it so as not to repeat what the students can download to kindle; or I'm doing it to see what they've been told by other writers. In this case I had come to realize that both bird by bird and Writing Down the Bones -- while still valid -- are getting a little long in the tooth. I recommend Lucy Snyder's Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit these days, but it leans toward popular fiction and the business side of things, so I picked this up in search of a more general guide. And I found what I was seeking.

Beginning with a chapter on Memory is an excellent move. Both essays are evocative, and I put exclamation marks next to two of the writing prompts at the end. In the Inspiration chapter I am stealing the prompt "Write a list poem naming/describing everything you won't write about the event/moment/image that has not inspired you." and which brought a couple of Billy Collins poems to mind.

My one quibble is about the Structure chapter, which my end note says, "has good bits, but isn't really on point." My view may be because I spend so much of my time addressing basic structure in my own teaching...

I read through this fairly rapidly, the pages turn easily, and I have little notes of approval in the margins. I've incorporated some of the suggestions in my own materials, which tells you it was useful right there.

[Etola · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really intriguing concept for a book about writing! It's less about hard craft and more focused on the two authors' musings on the different elements of writing. Some really intriguing & fun exercises are included.

[Lisa Ard · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are lots of writing craft books out there, but this writing book is different. McDermott and Benner Dixon have created a book to inspire joy in the act of writing. With twelve different chapters around a topic (i.e. Imagery, Place, Surprise, Beauty, Revision), each author has written a compelling essay, and invited us into their stories. (McDermott's grandmother and mine would have got along, as mine appreciated a good dress up too) After reading Memory, I felt I knew each a little bit better AND I was inspired to write my own Memory essay. That's made easier by the prompts that follow each chapter. Millions of Suns offers a predictable format (explained by the authors in the introduction) and unexpected, inspiring content to fuel any writer's joy.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a poet and memoir writer, it is one of the best books on writing I have read.
Thank you, Sharon and M.C.