Chaos, Creativity, Completion: New Approaches to Writing and ADHD

by Chloe Martinez, Lisa Van Orman Hadley (Editor), Rebecca Makkai (Foreword)

Genres: Adhd, Writing, Nonfiction

232 pages, Paperback

Published March 12, 2026

About the author

Chloe Martinez is a poet and a scholar of South Asian religions. She is the author of the collection Ten Thousand Selves (The Word Works) and the chapbook Corner Shrine (Backbone Press). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Miranda]

My interest in reading about ADHD is a fairly recent development. I suppose that will happen when you start to suspect you have it. While not currently diagnosed, the more I read about ADHD, the more things in my life have started to make sense.

I was especially excited when I was approved to read Chaos, Creativity, Completion because it’s one of the few resources I’ve come across that addresses the ADHD experience in writers. The essays in this collection range widely. Some were chaotic and difficult for me to follow. Others touched on sensitive and necessary topics such as systemic policies, infrastructure, and culture. Then there were the ones that I found myself tearing up at because what I saw was a reflection of myself. To be validated and understood. To know you’re not doing things wrong. Just differently.

The writing prompts at the end of each essay are as unique as the essays themselves. Some may seem out right strange, but you never know what can happen until you give it a try.

Many thanks to the University of Chicago Press, NetGalley, and the editors for this eARC!

[Natasha]

These essays are not only eye-opening to the difficulties of having ADHD in a world that ostracizes people, but these essays also expose the beauty of brains that thinks differently, creatively. The diverse voices, perspectives, and structures are a testament to that. And the writing prompts and encouragement is valuable for all writers, regardless of neurology. I do not have ADHD, but I have children who do and I found this book helpful in understanding them.

[Kate Vogl]

Great prompts for writing included at end of every chapter.

For those who need it, they do also include helpful tips about writing with ADHD. Helpful as well that they include the conversation with the therapist at the end about other coping strategies.