Praise for Joni B. Cole's Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive
From the Jacket
All writers have stories of how some teacher, workshop participant, friend, or spouse gave them commentary that undermined their confidence and their writing. This "toxic feedback" has tainted feedback's reputation as a whole, causing too many writers to avoid or mismanage this valuable resource. In the first book to focus on this vital but delicate dynamic, Joni B. Cole applies first-person experience, real-life teaching examples, and her own unique ability to entertain while reaffirming the many merits of feedback. Cole shows writers how to use feedback to energize and inform their writing at every stage of the process. For feedback providers, she delivers insights into constructive criticism and the difference between being heard and being obnoxious. Finally, she offers advice to workshops and critique groups on how to thrive in this collective experience. In addition, established writers including Julia Alvarez, Khaled Hosseini, Ted Kooser, Gregory Maguire, Jodi Picoult, and others share their own feedback stories—from useful to inspiring to deranged—underscoring Cole's message that feedback plays a critical role in every writer's success. Through a mixture of instruction, anecdotes, and moral support, Cole manages to detoxify the feedback process with humor and without laying blame, inspiring both sides of the interaction to make the most of this powerful resource.
From Library Journal
Drawing on her experience as the leader of a long-running
writing workshop, Cole addresses the delicate process of giving and receiving
constructive criticism. She offers helpful techniques for writers who want to
respond productively to one another's work, incorporate such responses into
their own writing, and perhaps even run their own workshops. Though the focus is
on informal settings and exchanges among friends, Cole's suggestions are useful
for students and teachers as well...Cole enlivens her compositional and
pedagogic advice by interspersing interviews with writers on the order of Grace
Paley, Khaled Hosseini, and Jennifer Cruise. These segments, along with many
other portions of Toxic Feedback, can
stand alone and would spur discussion in any writing group.
From Valley News, Lebanon, NH
[T]he book is so helpful, likable and even kind that it deserves two thumbs (and the rest of those typing fingers) up...If you know someone who is on the verge of declaring himself or herself a writer, about to take the first steps toward sharing work with other readers, this book could be a real help.
<<read an excerpt from Toxic Feedback>>