Just Making: A Guide for Compassionate Creatives

by Mitali Perkins

From award-winning author Mitali Perkins comes an essential companion for writers, artists, and other makers who long for a more just world.

Why should we make art while injustice and suffering wreak havoc? How can we justify making beautiful things? Author Mitali Perkins isn’t afraid of hard questions about justice and art. She knows that the creative life can seem selfish. As the daughter of immigrants, she studied toward a career of eradicating poverty, and knows the internal voice that challenges: “How dare you retreat to your studio to create?”

But Perkins learned that writing fiction wasn’t setting aside her passion for a better world but pursuing it, and in the pages of Just Making, she offers a justice-driven perspective unique among books on creativity. “My ancestors are village Bengali women who made beautiful things but didn’t dare to dream of art as a career,” she writes. Women across the globe have crafted beauty and order amid chaos, war, and deprivation, and Perkins turns our attention to what we learn from them.

Just Making introduces us to strategies such as forgetfulness in flow, tenderness in trauma, and crossing borders. In conversation with creative guides like Nikki Grimes, Chad Somers, and Carol Aust, Perkins offers up practices and wisdom gleaned from other artists. Persevering through pushback from within and without, we can keep making art that heals human suffering, transmits truth, and confronts the oppressor.

Here are dispatches for young and not-so-young creatives, crafted by a writer committed to shalom: the flourishing of all. We must keep making art infused with truth, beauty, and goodness, Perkins claims, not to ignore a world in distress but for the sake of loving it. With vivid stories, practical ideas, and reflection questions, Just Making will inspire you to keep making beauty in a broken world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Creative

178 pages, Hardcover

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

Mitali Perkins has written many books for young readers as well as a couple for adults, including You Bring the Distant Near (nominated for the National Book Award) Rickshaw Girl (a NYPL best 100 Book for children in the past 100 years, film adaptation at rickshawgirlmovie.com), Bamboo People (an ALA Top 10 YA novel), and Forward Me Back to You, which won the South Asia Book Award for Younger Readers. Her newest novel, Hope in the Valley, received five starred reviews and was selected as a Best Book for Young Readers by Kirkus and Book Page. She currently writes and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area: mitaliperkins.com.

Reviews

[Katie Howey · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have ever wondered, "What is the point of making art when there is so much suffering in the world? What good can it possibly do?" This book may be for you.

In Just Making, Mitali Perkins draws on her life experience and her personal practices as an author to discuss the act of making art and how it relates to justice. She gives examples of how art helps to create, promote, and demand justice in society, and gives the reader practical advice on how overcome the challenges of being an artist in today's world.

There were parts of this book that I found really interesting and inspiring. The connections she draws between women's nurturing and creative roles and the creative, nurturing aspects of God were particularly exciting, and I found her discussions about how to remain humble when working with stories that are not your own were very thoughtful and helpful.

However, I feel that this book could just as easily been called "Christian Making," (or even, if I'm going out on a limb here, "Catholic Making.") The Christian elements may be helpful for some, but distracting for others. The perspective felt unbalanced - Perkins talked about injustice in Muslim countries and how art was used to address that, but never mentioned how art has been used to speak out against injustices within the Church, or even much within the United States. There is a fascinating history of how people have used art to fight injustice, and her focus on this only within the Middle East didn't sit well with me. It is easy to speak about injustice outside of our own experience and often difficult to confront it within our own circles. Given some of the advice she gives in the rest of the book, I am disappointed that Perkins does not seem to confront this in her work here. I hope that she has an opportunity to publish another edition of this book one day, and that she uses that opportunity to address this.

Just Making is a beautifully written book, with an important message to spread. I found that in some ways it missed the mark, but I think that it still holds a lot of value, especially for Christian readers.

3/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Brandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep making beautiful things for the sake of loving our broken world.

[bookish gabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents some powerful insights on being an artist engaged in social justice, with valuable concepts and practical exercises, especially in Part III, that I found genuinely useful in my own creative practice. I appreciated the inclusion of diverse philosophies, as well as the encouragement to persevere in artistic work.

I wasn’t expecting the book to be so deeply rooted in Christianity, at times feeling more like evangelism than a general guide for socially engaged artists. The section on vices in Part II, in particular, felt overly grandiose in its language, making it difficult to stay engaged.

That being said, I do think this book has the potential to bridge gaps, encouraging Christian artists to align their work with justice and compassion, especially in the U.S. context. However, I would have loved to see a version that leaned more into spirituality—similar to The Artist’s Way—rather than one so anchored in Christian doctrine. If the author ever considers releasing a second edition, a more broadly spiritual adaptation could make these valuable insights more accessible to a wider audience.

Overall, this book has a lot to offer, but readers who aren’t expecting an overtly Christian approach may struggle to connect with it.

Thank you to Broadleaf Books for providing this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

[Clancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who often questions "why" I really enjoyed this book. Although I do not identify myself with Christianity, I still really loved the messages in this book (there are many references to the Bible/Bible versus in this). This is a quick read, but had me re-reading and highlighting sections that I resonated with, or that I learned something from. As someone who sews and is going to school for textiles, fashion, and design, I LOVED everything about quilts and the stories that quilts have been able to tell in history. I honestly think I will find myself referencing this book and going back to it often.

[Debbie Hoskins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creating can be a lonely task that feels selfish. This book gives hope and encouragement to those “in studios and workshops and libraries and studies and concert halls and sewing rooms seeking to generate goodness for yourself and others… to be compassionate and gracious in your making,…[and] to act justly, love mercy, and walk in humility.”
As an aging and older woman I find comfort that through creativity we can “heal from the loss [found in] aging and the feeling of becoming invisible and discarded,” which can happen especially with older women.

[Faith Elizabeth Hough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writers and artists of all sorts...if I can convince you to read one book on craft this year, let it be this.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a insightful book about making art that loves Mercy and does justly. writing from a Christian perspective, Matali Perkins describes how art brings justice to creators, recipients and communities. She helps us confront the external factors that make making art difficult (external brutal markets, and internal forces and deadly sins) she then proposes 10 practices for Just Making:

1. restore agency in the vocation by honing your craft.
2.Find third places to promote your art
3. Seek Mentors from the margins.
4. welcome moments of mortification.
5. Fast to embrace vulnerability.
6. pursue community to counter envy.
7.Retreat to let anger breathe.
8. create rhythms of work and rest.
9.cross borders with your body.
10. liberate the work.

Perkins shares stories about her own creative challenges as a creative (she's a children's author) and how her own discernment and calling has helped her create transformative art.

I was trying to see if this would be a good book for a Lenten study at my church. It may not be the right book for this particular group, but I plan to return to it.

[Linda Hanstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

After hearing Mitali Perkins speak at the Festival of Faith and Writing in 2024, and then listening to a recent podcast interview about her latest book—Just Making—I knew I wanted to read it. Perkins beautifully reminds creatives, including writers, why we do what we do; essentially, to bring beauty, truth, and goodness to a broken world. She then discusses the barriers we face in our calling, and—in the most practical portion of the book—outlines ten practices for overcoming those barriers.

Perkins vulnerably shares the frustrations and humiliation she's experienced in her writing journey. I identified with several struggles I've also faced as a new and independent author. The practices she outlines for combating these external and internal enemies are worth revisiting. I marked up and highlighted nuggets of wisdom in every chapter and will refer to them often!

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not wait to read Mitali Perkins’ forthcoming book Just Making: A Guide for Compassionate Creatives so I got an advance reader copy. It’s the perfect book for me, as someone who writes but also feels like, with so much going wrong in the world, maybe writing isn’t enough or even necessary. Reading this book is like having Mitali by my side, encouraging with her words and offering tools for those of us who are creative and want to make the world a better place, praying that our creativity is a balm.

This book appeared on my "Books to Keep Up Your New Year's Resolutions" blog post:
https://beingincommunity.com/books-to...

[YeReadsAwhile · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly invaluable read especially for creatives like me in the market. I enjoyed the way Perkins narrates her personal experiences and strings clear and informative methods and strategies inspiring us to push through our craft with the hope of making it. Thank you for this helpful insight. Inviting all creatives, this is your book of the year!!!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Broadleaf Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not the target audience for this book, although at one level, I think we are all creatives. But I really appreciate Mitali Perkin's wisdom. She has deep insights, presented simply and clearly, an indication of her calling as a children's author. A book I will be recommending to many of my creative friends.

Review based on a digital ARC received through Edelweiss+.

[Grace]

I did not realize that this book is rooted in Christianity. I recognize that the author wanted it to be useful to people who are outside of this faith, but there are a lot of Bible verses and Christian language, making it hard for me to read. I am sure that it could be valuable to Christians, but it is not worth it for me to continue reading.

[Dorothy Greco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perkins does a fabulous job of leading us through the whys and hows of living as a creative. She's honest about the complexities and challenges but also supportive, hopeful, and practical. As an author and photographer who cares deeply about issues of injustice, I found the book very encouraging.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this book expecting a call to action for all creatives who feel like their contributions to the world don't matter. That is not quite what I found, but I was not disappointed.

Perkins has a very warm authorial voice. Reading Just Making feels like chatting with an encouraging friend. I think for young creatives who already identify with or were raised in Christianity, this book would be a life enhancing gift.

But the book is neither labeled for young audiences nor Christians in particular, so that discovery was a bit jarring. A lot of the first few chapters are made up more of quotes or explanation of quotes rather than Perkins' own words. But the insight provided is very helpful to hear as a stunted creative.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full published review coming soon!