“For most members of a community, the liminal is a point of transition, entered briefly,” writes Jane Hirshfield in this collection of essays on creativity and storytelling. “For some, though, the liminal becomes their only dwelling-place—becomes home. A writer must invent for himself how to live in this way.” In these nine essays, Hirshfield delves into the roots of poetic craft by examining what she calls “the mind of concentration,” expanding upon what the writer’s role is in a community, the origins of poetry in oral memory, and the nature of perception and self-expression. Written to serve the general reader as well as the working writer, Nine Gates offers strategies for language and thought that allow meaning to be developed and emotion to be expressed with clarity.
