New Brunswick poet publishes book with university students

A surge in online book publishing since the spring indicates that despite all the physical distancing of the pandemic, more and more people are stepping up to write that book they had been thinking of writing for years.

Kathy Mac’s newest book Wording Around with Prose: Getting a First Draft Out of Your Head and Onto the Page is here to give a shot of adrenaline to your latest writing project.

Writing Around with Prose is a straightforward and light-hearted guide to evolving your writing to the next level — offering tips, exercises, and positive reinforcement along the way.

The toughest part of writing – without irony – is the writing itself. As a published poet and prose writer, Mac took that sentiment to heart while she spent the spring of 2020 delivering a free online course focused on improving participants’ creative writing. When the course was over, participants told her that it was, “a good first delve into the art of writing,” and “one of the best creative writing classes I have ever taken.”

Given all this positive feedback, and knowing she was going to need a project for her students of ENGL 3153: Literary Publishing this fall, Mac pulled together a manuscript from her course notes, which is how Wording Around with Prose came to be.

Throughout the semester, Mac worked alongside her students to polish, publish, and market the manuscript digitally. All collaboration was done online as the COVID pandemic restricted Mac’s class from meeting on campus, but ultimately Mac was thrilled with the work of her students, claiming, “Wording Around with Prose wouldn’t exist without the brilliant students of St. Thomas University’s ENGL 3153: Literary Publishing course.” She went on to explain the work “gave students a visceral understanding of the ups and downs, and the vast amount of effort, in taking a manuscript and turning it into a publication.”

Wording Around with Prose will ease your writing out of a slump and into a first draft. It breaks down the elements of writing into chapters focused on prewriting, characters, plot, setting, editing and the like. Every chapter introduces techniques to keeping the story powerful, cutting out the unnecessary – and most importantly, helping writers find the enjoyment in the writing process.

As a professor at St. Thomas University and a published writer, Mac knows how to shed light on the dark, misty process of writing. Crafted with many years of professional experience and honest knowledge, Wording Around With Prose: Getting a First Draft Out of Your Head and Onto the Page is a valuable resource for new and veteran writers.

Dominic Kent is a student in Kathy Mac’s ENGL 3153: Literary Publishing course at St. Thomas University.