Thought for the Day

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up

 and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. 

You wait and watch and work: You don't give up.

~ Anne Lamott

___________________________

Writer Anne Lamott has published more than a half-dozen novels, including Rosie and its sequel Crooked Little Heart, Blue Shoe, and Joe Jones; a collection of essays, Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, and four other best-selling works of nonfiction: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, and Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. Her new novel Imperfect Birds is due out April 6.

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Lamott writes for Salon Magazine. She has taught at the University of California/Davis and writing workshops and conferences throughout the United States. 

Lamott also is the subject of a documentary, Bird by Bird with Annie, by filmmaker Freida Lee Mock. A trailer for the film, which is available via Amazon and the American Film Foundation, is here. For additional information on the film and the filmmaker, as well as written excerpts and audio clips of Lamott's views on writing, getting sober, mothering and single parenthood, and being religious and spiritual, go here and here, respectively.

Interviews with Lamott can be found here, here, and here. Speaking of Faith offers an unedited interview with Lamott that you may download. (It's worth the time to listen to it.) SOF's most recent post is "Thinking of Anne Lamott as We Create a New Show" (March 16, 2010).

You will find a schedule of Lamott's public appearances here.

My post "Reading with Ann Lamott" is here.