All We Read Is Freaks

by William S. Bowers

At the beginning of each new lesson, Will Bowers faces the blank stares of students in his community college English class. These are students who live amid the suburban sprawl of strip malls and strip clubs, who struggle with night jobs and their own personal catastrophes. Impressing upon them the importance of a nineteenth-century poet named Emily Dickinson can seem like a nearly insurmountable challenge. Yet Bowers leaps at the opportunity to bring a little poetry into the lives of his students. He shows them Dickinson's picture. He discusses her family and her year at seminary. He sees a glimmer of understanding. But when discussing her choice to be a recluse, the exchange breaks down, and one student declares, "She sounds like another freak. Seems like all we read in here is freaks."

Written in direct, funny, and unflinching prose, All We Read Is Freaks is an extraordinary account of life and learning, and a teacher's passion for both.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best essays I've read in years. Maybe ever.
You can find the entire text on The Rumpus [a great site!:] here:
http://therumpus.net/2010/04/all-we-r...

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's actually not a book, so far as I can tell, it only exists as an essay published in The Rumpus: https://therumpus.net/2010/04/05/all-...

And what an absolutely brilliant, funny, insightful, thoughtful, vivid, depressing, inspiring essay it is.

I think it was supposed to be a book and then for whatever reason it never turned out that way?

But this absolutely could have been two hundred pages worth and I'd be hanging on every word.