Chaos, Creativity, Completion - by Chloe Martinez & Lisa Van Orman Hadley Paperback

About the Book

"The rising number of ADHD diagnoses, particularly among adults, is not only confirmed by medical studies and mainstream reporting but also the borne out across social media solidarity among people who'd been privately coping with persistent, often inexpressible challenges. Many of contributors to this edited volume can attest to how a later-in-life diagnosis radically demystified the patterns, impulses, and impasses that had impacted their lives and their writing. The essays collected in Chaos, Creativity, Completion reflect the ways in which these varied individuals-poets, novelists, memoirists, filmmakers, and others-have come to understand and embrace the relationship between their ADHD and their creative practices. The resulting pieces vary in form and tone, directness and indirectness, humor and seriousness. Some are analytical, some are reflective, and some are delightfully weird. Several may seem unfocused at first but soon coalesce into cohesive wholes; others adopt experimental formal structures that, for lack of a better word, just seem to work for the author. These differences and idiosyncrasies are precisely what brings these authors together: just as the experience of ADHD varies from person to person, so do the ways in which those experiences can be expressed. Chaos, Creativity, Completion is a kaleidoscopic, adventurous series of takes on what writing looks like today, no matter who you are or what you have"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Fifteen essays that offer inspiration, encouragement, and advice from accomplished writers with ADHD.

A rising number of ADHD diagnoses, particularly among adults, is not only confirmed by medical studies and mainstream reporting but also borne out across social media and elsewhere among people who'd been privately coping with persistent, often inexpressible challenges. Many of the contributors to this collection can attest to how a later-in-life diagnosis radically demystified the patterns, impulses, and impasses that had affected their lives and their writing. The essays in Chaos, Creativity, Completion reflect the ways poets, novelists, memoirists, filmmakers, and others have come to understand and engage the relationship between their ADHD and their creative tool kits.

These essays consider how writers can embrace rather than mask their neurodifference, offering multiple ways of finding writing practices that work for ADHD brains--including techniques that often look quite different from traditional writing instruction. Some essays are analytical, some are reflective, and some are delightfully weird, employing humor, research, personal narrative, deep description, close reading, and experimental approaches to genre and form. Each essay also concludes with a writing prompt, providing readers with opportunities to expand their own creative toolkits. Finally, the book includes an interview with David Kessler, a licensed therapist and nationally recognized ADHD advocate, and an appendix with a glossary of helpful terms and a list of recommended resources, from books and organizations to apps and gadgets.

Just as the experience of ADHD varies from person to person, so, too, do the ways those experiences can be expressed. Chaos, Creativity, Completion is a kaleidoscopic, adventurous series of takes on what writing looks like today.

Review Quotes

"Chaos, Creativity, Completion hands the mic to fifteen ADHD writers who don't color inside the lines, and don't need to. These essays are often sharp, strange, and gloriously anti-rule. They'll show you that your messy process isn't a flaw; it's a feature. The message is simple but radical: When ADHD writers work with their brains instead of against them, the result isn't just different--it's better."-- "Tracy Otsuka, podcast host and author of "ADHD for Smart Ass Women""

"Sometimes it takes a while to become who you already are. And for those of us who are dynamic, kinetic, and variously 'too alive, ' writing and community are often the pathways that lead us there. Here. Every essay in this book illuminates a different path to wholeness, not alone but always interconnected with others. I feel so grateful that this book exists and that it will doubtlessly accompany waves of neurodivergent writers out there joyfully becoming who they already are."-- "Chris Martin, author of "May Tomorrow Be Awake: On Poetry, Autism, and Our Neurodiverse Future""

About the Author

Chloe Martinez is a poet, a translator, and a scholar of South Asian religions. She is the author of the poetry collections Ten Thousand Selves and Corner Shrine and translator of Blue Like My Beloved: Poems of Mirabai. She works at Claremont McKenna College, where she is Associate Director for Programming at the Center for Writing and Public Discourse. Lisa Van Orman Hadley is the author of Irreversible Things, an autobiographical novel-in-stories. Her stories have most recently appeared in New England Review, The Collagist, and Epoch and have been shortlisted in Ploughshares and Glimmer Train. She lives in Salt Lake City and works as a freelance editor. Rebecca Makkai is the author of five books of fiction and a 2002 Guggenheim Fellow. Her novel The Great Believers, one of the New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, among other honors.