Award-winning writer. Friend of ambitious people living with limitations.

My name is Esmé (pronounced EZ-may). I’m a writer. My debut novel, The Border of Paradise, has received accolades and kind words from places such as LitHub, NPR Books, and the Chicago Review of Books; I was selected by Granta for their once-a-decade Best of Young American Novelists list of 21 authors under 40; in 2018 I received the prestigious Whiting Award. I write essays that have been published in the Believer, Catapult, The New Inquiry, Lenny, Hazlitt, and Salon, and am working on a collection of essays about schizophrenia for Graywolf Press, which is the result of having won the 2016 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize. I write short stories, one of which was selected for Best American Short Stories 2018. And I create work here that I hope will help you on your creative journey, including a workbook-and-audio program about creating from one’s obsessions and themes (find that in the Shop).

This website is the place to be if you want to know more about my literary life—links to pieces I’ve published, information about my novel and forthcoming essay collection, dates for forthcoming literary events, press clips, and so forth. Dig in.

But… you can also find me at The Unexpected Shape, where I provide resources for ambitious people living with limitations to build resilience, excellence, and legacy. I offer a free series of emails called Encouragement Notes, as well as entry into a supportive, thriving Facebook group made up of fascinating and resilient people of all sorts. A popular workshop has become a short, sweet, and effective email course, A**-Kicking with Limitations. My signature online course, Rawness of Remembering, is a much-loved program that teaches the skills needed for restorative journaling through difficult times.

Hop on over to The Unexpected Shape, or stay a while here. Do both! Either way: welcome.

 

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P.S. To find links to articles about me and podcasts I’ve been on, as well as media-ready photographs and contact information, please visit the Press page.

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I’d love to stay in touch with you.

For from-the-heart letters about life, resilience, and creativity, sign up for With Love & Squalor. Each letter also contains links to excellent writing from around the web, a collection of Five [Extraordinary] Words, and occasional discounts and previews of upcoming works and creations. Signing up will also nab you the Productivity Journaling with Limitations e-book, a nifty tool to help you dive into analogue planning while living with limitations.

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  • I am proud to say that my husband discovered Nordstrom Rack while I was away
  • From the morning of my departure to Washington, DC. I am hoping to be spending a lot less time with my phone on this trip. & I am already feeling hopeful for days spent reading, writing, eating, & talking: restoration & rebirth. Eyes up; let’s go.
  • The place between being maxed out and passionately not wanting to give up is where renewal needs to happen. We can stop here to let go of ways that aren’t working, repair some damaged sails, fuel up on inspiration, and head back out with a fortified sense of purpose.⠀ ⠀ If you need a reset, you’re invited to LETTERS FOR RENEWAL: 30 Days of Courage, Conviction, and Hopefulness, with Danielle LaPorte. Sign up, and throughout September you’ll receive 30 morsels of wisdom, poetry, and beauty for realignment & restoration. @daniellelaporte has rallied a crew of people to send you some beauty next month, and I’m honored to be one of them. It all starts September 1, and… it’s FREE.⠀ ⠀ Registration is open until August 31: DANIELLELAPORTE.COM/LETTERS⠀
  • (Photo by @jacquelyntierney) I got to spend some truly lovely time yesterday with a friend who’s visiting from out of town; we ate and laughed and played with Daphne. It was a good distraction from anxiety. Today I’m getting some cavities filled, & will need to start packing for DC. I made a list this morning of good things. Got some emails about a visiting writer stint next month. Am listening to funny podcasts. Etc.
  • this is a repost of a post from @dammitleigh — the first repost about The Collected Schizophrenias from a person I don’t know intimately (& thank you, @dammitleigh) ・・・ Super solid airport/flight companions #tiffanyhaddish and @esmewwang I feel so grateful to have an early look at The Collected Schizophrenias. Carrying it with me everywhere I go. When I heard the writer of some of my favorite fiction of the past ten years AND the best newsletter I've ever subscribed to had essays coming out... it got real. Thank you, Esmé, for sharing your unique experience, depth of feeling and clinical expertise. I can't wait for February 2019, when I can put this in readers' hands. Thanks to @graywolfpress for publishing great books and getting them to needy booksellers. #thecollectedschizophrenias
  • okay sorry I posted a photo of my new hair already but I styled it & now I like it much better 😬 so my apologies for the double post ✨
  • "sink those teeth into the back of fear's neck. shake until it is limp + surrendered. leave it in a heap in the corner. / now hunt down happiness, run w/muscles bunching under sleek skin. tackle  it. drag it home by the bloody throat. you can have everything. / no dark hunts you, you hunt both dark + light. my god, you're coming over the hill, you're a monster. don't forget it. look into the camera." — AKWAEKE EMEZI⠀ ⠀ Star-crossed, I’ve been trying to do an event with @azemezi, author of this year’s debut FRESHWATER, all year. We’ll finally get to meet this October at an event here in San Francisco, which I’m very thrilly about; I’m looking forward to being in conversation with them & am also thrilly about the recent Riverhead two-book deal that they announced. Sometimes good things happen in this literary world! & I am so glad to know about those things, which give & bring excitement and hope.
  • Time for a public service announcement: Hyori’s Bed & Breakfast is one of the best things going on Netflix. (The only other show that I consider as good: Terrace House, a Japanese reality show, also on Netflix.) Extremely sweet? Check. Extremely low-drama? Check. Very, very relaxing & heartwarming & full of dogs & cats? Check. ⠀ ⠀ The premise: Hyori Lee, a tremendously famous K-pop star who lives on an island with her husband and their seven dogs and cats, temporarily turns their small home (there are no doors on the bathrooms! there’s basically only one bedroom!) into a bed-and-breakfast. 20,000 people apply to come stay. Absolutely zero chaos ensues. ⠀ ⠀ It is so, so good, y’all. Highly recommended.⠀ ⠀ #hyorisbedandbreakfast #netflix #esmerecommends #heartwarmingthings⠀ ⠀ #augustbreak2018 // HAPPINESS IS
  • The anxiety has been a pummeling force. I could barely get myself to open this package—the last chance to change things before the book goes onward to printing—and am bewildered by the idea that February 2019 will be here before I know it. It may not be a coincidence that my mental health is unsteady right as I’m having this last chance to make this book the best that it can be.⠀ ⠀ I want so badly to have another residency before the end of the year. I’m not even sure I can have one next year, due to the responsibilities of a new book. I’m daydreaming of finding a sublet. I’m working on my second novel & finding joy in it. This work of being a writer, my deepest hope when I was but a girleen, is a funny business. & I’m so lucky to be able to be knee-deep in it. Here we go, go, go.

follow me @esmewwang

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