Finding the courage to name "Here"

On locating yourself + your reader in the story

Welcome to Slant Letter’s spring seasonal intensive! Become a paid subscriber to join our full close reading of Pádraig Ó Tuama’s In the Shelter for an editor’s annotated insights on an extraordinary meditation on the stories that shape us. These will be exclusive letters sent straight to you running from the end of March through May.

One of the questions I always ask writers as they begin a book is, “What is the driving problem as experienced by your reader?” Another way of asking: Where is the Here they are resisting? Where do they find themselves on the map?

Or another, Where does it hurt?

We are ever on the search for language to express the experiences we feel so viscerally, yet perhaps have not yet found the words to name. This is the sacred work of writers. We hold up mirrors as a gift of witness, as if to say, You are here, and I see you.

Let’s take a look at how Pádraig names the “Here” of his readers so well