cover image The Wild Why: Stories and Teachings to Uncover Your Wonder

The Wild Why: Stories and Teachings to Uncover Your Wonder

Laura Munson. SheWrites, $17.99 trade paper (376p) ISBN 978-1-64742-838-9

Novelist Munson (Willa Grove) invites readers to tap into their creativity with this spirited if overbusy guide. Shamed as a young child for asking too many questions, Munson vacillated between giving free rein to her creativity in theater productions and her journal and adhering to rigid social rules at her boarding school. Describing how becoming a novelist as an adult inspired her to rediscover her wonder (the sensitive, curious, emotional part of oneself), she models—via suggested writing prompts—how readers can do the same by identifying their “wonder wound” (the person, place, or moment in one’s life that dismantled their curiosity) and how it was perpetuated in adulthood by their inner critic. Reviving one’s wonder can involve connecting to one’s “liberated, wise, self-accepting” inner child and joining communities that support creative pursuits. Unfortunately, Munson’s promising premise gets overtaken by her own responses to the writing prompts, with agonizingly detailed recollections of her struggles and formative childhood experiences crowding out useful guidance and lending this the feel of a repurposed memoir. The result is a well-intentioned but circuitous road map to reigniting one’s inner spark. (Apr.)