{"product_id":"instructions-for-traveling-west-isbn-9780593597613","title":"Instructions for Traveling West","description":"\u003cb\u003eNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A vivid and inspiring poetry collection about what’s possible when we heed our instincts and honor our intuition, allowing ourselves to strike out for new territories of love, pleasure, and peace. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“This empathetic, honest, and intimate collection is chockful of poems reminding the reader to love earnestly, live freely, and pay attention.”—Kate Baer, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAnd Yet\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWhat Kind of Woman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFirst, you must realize you’re homesick for all the lives you’re not living. Then, you must commit to the road and the rising loneliness. To the sincere thrill of coming apart.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSo begins Joy Sullivan’s \u003ci\u003eInstructions for Traveling West\u003c\/i\u003e—a lush debut collection that examines what happens when we leave home and leap into the deep unknown. Mid-pandemic, Sullivan\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eleft the man she planned to marry, sold her house, quit her corporate job, and drove west. This dazzling collection tells that story as it illuminates the questions haunting us all: What possible futures lie on the horizon? What happens when we heed the call of furious reinvention? \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA book for anyone flinging themselves into fresh starts,\u003ci\u003e Instructions for Traveling West \u003c\/i\u003egrapples with loss, loneliness and belonging. These poems teach us that naming our desire is profound alchemy. Each of us holds the power to set our own course forward.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eExpansive and heart-opening—exquisite in their specificity, galvanizing in their scope—the poems in \u003ci\u003eInstructions for Traveling West\u003c\/i\u003e speak to the longing that lives within us all. They remind us that “joy is not a trick.”“This empathetic, honest, and intimate collection is chockful of poems reminding the reader to love earnestly, live freely, and pay attention.”\u003cb\u003e—Kate Baer, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAnd Yet\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWhat Kind of Woman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Here, we see a woman feeding herself—light, bread, joy. This book is going to be a beloved companion by so many readers.”\u003cb\u003e—Maggie Smith, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eYou Could Make This Place Beautiful\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What a thrilling voice! Joy Sullivan’s poetry is vast and yet familiar—and more remarkably, full of images and recollections that might have been mine, or yours. Her poems offer respite for both weary travelers and those of us who still feel fresh and bright-eyed, making this book a wonderful comfort.”\u003cb\u003e—Elise Loehnen\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eOn Our Best Behavior\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eInstructions for Traveling West\u003c\/i\u003e is remarkable for how it captures this moment, the essence of this weird middle time—and for how thrilling it is to read someone who is noticing, who is saying despite every terrible thing, ‘This place is great, I want to be here, what a thing to be alive.’ Joy Sullivan will make you want to live the way that Mary Oliver makes you want to live. You read this to remember.”\u003cb\u003e—Holly Whitaker, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eQuit Like a Woman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A blistering, tender reflection on desire and delight that will soak right into your skin.”\u003cb\u003e—Lyndsay Rush, Mary Oliver’s Drunk Cousin on Instagram\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In this sunny debut collection, Sullivan traces a lifelong journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance with deceptive depth. [Her] unpretentious and blunt recounting of her experiences is a breath of fresh air.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Publishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sullivan’s poems are direct and sensuous, each lyric a vibrant vignette, a story with a lesson, a sensuous homily defining holiness as lushly earthy. These are . . . moving, forthright, and fresh poems about loneliness and desire, beauty and pain. Sullivan’s collection is a welcoming and rewarding volume, especially for readers tentative about poetry.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoy Sullivan\u003c\/b\u003e received an MA in poetry from Miami University and has served as the poet-in-residence for the Wexner Center for the Arts. She has guest-lectured in classrooms from Stanford University to Florida International University and is the founder of Sustenance, a community designed to help writers revitalize and nourish their craft. Read her thoughts on the creative life in her Substack newsletter, \u003ci\u003eNecessary Salt.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eRemember What It Was Like to Be a Kid?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll skinned knees,\u003cbr\u003epavement and sick-sweet\u003cbr\u003ecandy in the sticky backseat.\u003cbr\u003eHow you stank of sweat,\u003cbr\u003ebewilderment, popsicles, peppermint.\u003cbr\u003eSwam in summer until it gobbled\u003cbr\u003eyou whole. Witnessed revelation,\u003cbr\u003etrembling and silent: the rabbit’s nest\u003cbr\u003ebetween the stones, a dark bat winging,\u003cbr\u003ethe buck carcass at the edge of the wood\u003cbr\u003ewhere you weren’t allowed to linger,\u003cbr\u003eand a woman calling you home.\u003cbr\u003eHow you found the jewel of language\u003cbr\u003eand marveled at your wealth: mule deer,\u003cbr\u003eblister beetle, blue ghost firefly. Each new name—\u003cbr\u003ea little candle you brandished in the dark.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLong Division\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy first friend was built like a willow tree. We were the same age but she was taller and leaner and impossibly graceful. Hadessah is the Hebrew name for Esther—the biblical beauty who saved her people from genocide. I was envious of her name and its heroism. Mine was Joy—flimsy and monosyllabic like pond or soap or cheese. Hadessah was smarter than me too, got better grades, and understood long division where all I saw was a thin bridge with numbers jumping off. But she laughed at everything I said and my god, I adored her. When you’re little, love really knocks you out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe said what kids say when you move. That we’d write. That we wouldn’t forget. That, every night, we’d look up at that one weird winky star and make a wish. After she left, I could still see her bike leaning against the house, its blue body trembling in the rain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNothing is as lonely as childhood, and the person to finally interrupt that ache is a big miracle. You never forget the hero who slides into the bus seat beside you or scoots their tray over at the lunch table. The silhouette of someone small and familiar running down your street—sweaty and hopeful that you can come out to play. To this day, I can still hear Hadessah’s voice at sunset. The bats winging in the dying light. She’s calling out my dumb name. She’s making it sound almost beautiful.National bestseller","brand":"Dial Press Trade Paperback","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302196072677,"sku":"NP9780593597613","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593597613.jpg?v=1767730099","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/instructions-for-traveling-west-isbn-9780593597613","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}