by AnnSheybani | Feb 10, 2025 | Life
A long time ago, when I was selling photo copiers for a living, I met an older woman who gave me a piece of advice I’ll never forget. “Darling,” she said, smoothing back her hair with steady hands, “there’s a time and a place for everything. You can’t do it all...
by AnnSheybani | Feb 3, 2025 | Writing
I once had a lovely, wise professor who said, “If you write about a person, tell the truth, and do it with love and compassion.” To show what he meant, he read a scene from one of his books in which he described, in gorgeous language, the boy he once was, his drunken...
by AnnSheybani | Jan 26, 2025 | Life, Writing
Plato had it right when he said, “Those who tell the stories rule society.” In other words, if you want to get ahead–and ahead does not mean taking over Greenland–you need to open your mouth and share your experiences. A piece of advice I took to heart...
by AnnSheybani | Jan 19, 2025 | Writing
I was talking to a potential client yesterday about her dream of writing a book. She’s got this amazing story about rebuilding her life after losing everything—and I mean everything—in 2008. The kind of story that makes you realize your own problems aren’t...
by AnnSheybani | Jan 13, 2025 | Reading, Writing
When I was in grad school, I took an essay writing course. We were assigned an anthology called The Best American Essays, which still sits, all marked up with black ink, on my bookshelf. (If I could find a link, I’d put it here, but I can’t.) In it, I...
