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Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work
“Even though writing is a solitary act, when I sit with words that I trust will be read by someone, I know that I can never be truly alone.” ―bell hooks, “women who write too much”
In this timeless essay collection on the writing life, award-winning author and renowned thinker bell hooks shares the secrets gleaned from years of facing the blank page, pen in hand.
At a time when the death of the book has been proclaimed, hooks’s Remembered Rapture beats with a pulsing passion for words, reminding us of literacy’s potency and the vital joys of reading and writing. In contemplative essays infused with her personal experience, hooks reveals her wide-ranging intellectual scope. With insight and vision, hooks untangles the complex personae of women writers, especially those whose work goes against the grain.
This inspiring collection from a treasured American author is for everyone who believes in the power of the written word.
“For anyone who writes, or seeks to understand the writing process, or wants to know more about the erudite and passionate mind of bell hooks, this is the book to read.” ― The Philadelphia Inquirer
In this timeless essay collection on the writing life, award-winning author and renowned thinker bell hooks shares the secrets gleaned from years of facing the blank page, pen in hand.
At a time when the death of the book has been proclaimed, hooks’s Remembered Rapture beats with a pulsing passion for words, reminding us of literacy’s potency and the vital joys of reading and writing. In contemplative essays infused with her personal experience, hooks reveals her wide-ranging intellectual scope. With insight and vision, hooks untangles the complex personae of women writers, especially those whose work goes against the grain.
This inspiring collection from a treasured American author is for everyone who believes in the power of the written word.
“For anyone who writes, or seeks to understand the writing process, or wants to know more about the erudite and passionate mind of bell hooks, this is the book to read.” ― The Philadelphia Inquirer
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 11, 1999
98 people are currently reading
1907 people want to read
About the author
bell hooks
162 books14.2k followersbell hooks (deliberately in lower-case; born Gloria Jean Watkins) was an African-American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. She published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary films and participated in various public lectures. Primarily through a postmodern female perspective, she addressed race, class, and gender in education, art, history, sexuality, mass media and feminism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
September 5, 2013
This was a rocky journey and let me tell you why:
p. 13 "For the vast majority of my life I have longed to write"
p. 14 "Once I began to write books regularly, sometimes publishing two at the same time, more and more comments were made to me about how much I was writing."
p. 15 "To overcome fears about writing, I began to write every day. My process was not to write a lot but to work in small increments, writing and rewriting. Of course I found early on that if I did this dilligently these small increments would ultimately become a book."
p. 16 "I know that this body of work emerged because I am again and again overwhelemd by ideas I want to put in writing. Since my interests are broad and wide-ranging, I am not surprised that there is an endless flow of ideas in my mind."
p. 18 "My zeal for writing has intensified over the years and the incredible affirming feedback from readers is one catalyst."
p. 18 "Sometimes I feel an urgent need to write ideas down on paper to make room for new ideas to arrive, keep my mind from becoming too crowded."
Look up 'graphomania'.
p. 19 "Since I have never tried to make a living as a writier, I have had the extreme good fortune to be ale to write only what I want to write when I want to write it."
p. 19 "When I choose to write an essay book that includes work that may have been published first in magazines, reviewers will often write about the work as though it is stale, nothing new. A book of mine might include ten new essays (which alone could be a book) and four or five pieces that were published elswhere and a reviewer might insist that there is no new work in the collection. Men can produce collections in which every piece has been published elsewhere and this will not even be mentioned in reviews."
I think she is missing the point here. When the reviewers say her work is repetitive, it is NOT because it has already been published somewhere else!
p. 29 "Among my critics, individual black women tend to be the most vociferous in their insistence that I write 'too much'. Glibly, Jewelle Gomez began a critique of my thirteenth book by facetiously labeling me 'the Joyce Carol Oates of black feminist writing'. Wrongly, she suggested that the book was merely a recycling of already published work. In actuality, it was a collection of twenty-two essays in which six were reprinted. Had they not been included it would still have been a book-length manuscript."
Yes, you said.
p. 29 "Often the suggestion that I am writing 'too much' comes from black women who have either written very little or not as much as they want to write.
Oh, that's what it is. They are just jealous of your logorrhoea.
p. 30 "Fortunately I have never to had to write to make a living. As a consequence I have always only written on subjects that intrigue and fascinate me."
I see. Wait, didn't you say that about 10 pages ago. Am I having a deja vu ?
p. 30 "No black woman writer in this culture can write 'too much'. Indeed, no woman writer can write 'too much'. Considering the centuring of silence, the genres of writing that have been virtually the sole terrain of men, more contributions by women writers should be both encouraged and welcomed."
Please, let no one encourage bell hooks to write even more, please.
p. 31 "When I publish collections of essays where pieces are included that have been published elsewhere, reviewers will sometimes suggest that there is nothing new in these works. Yet collections by women who write much less, whose articles may have all been published elsewhere do not get dismissed as mere recycling. And men, no one mentions the absense of 'fresh' work in their collections. "
Now I am absolutely certain I have heard this before. Two times. And we are only on page 31!
p. 33 "Instead, women writers and all our readers must talk back to all attempts to mock and belittle our commitment to words, to writing."
I suppose I will be getting in trouble for writing this review.
p. 34 "No woman is writing too much. Women need to write more."
Ok.. Now, that you've repeated it 15 times I think I get it.
p. 35. "Writing is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic."
Yes. So I've noticed.
As you can see, by the page 35, I was really annoyed and ready to scream. Bell hooks obviously refused any criticism of her work and put it down to sexism, racism or simple jealousy. She kept insisting that there was some white supremacist conspiracy created to belittle her work.
And while I believe the publishing world (like any world) is still very racist and sexist, she wasn't doing the cause any favours by sounding like a total lunatic.
And you know what? It's all a shame, because she makes quite a few valid and important points amongst that verbal diarrhoea and 'anti-feminist backlash' this and 'anti-feminist backlash' that.
I disagreed with her views on confessional literature and how supposedly male confessional literature is automatically given more literary value than female confessional literature that is just sent straight down to Oprah. I think male confessional literature that is sensational in character is dismissed as much as its female counterpart.
I also didn't care much for the essay on her spiritual growth and how it inspired her writing. That might be my fault though. I suppose I am not very spiritual and have never experienced spirits writing through me or any sort of muse. I just sit down and write and it is hard work. I actually refuse any notion of a muse and divine inspiration because I think this is one of the main reasons Polish literature is not very good.
My favourite essays were the ones about labels, and class and politics of writing and black women writing. In the essay called 'Writing without labels' she says:
"Writers from marginalized groups are usually faced with two options: overidentification with an identity or disidentification". It is extremely hard to find the right balance and I keep questioning myself who I want to be as a writer. While being a 'Polish immigrant' and a 'female' writer could very well be my selling point when approaching publishers I would rather not have this label stuck to me forever. I just want to be a writer who happens to be a Polish immigrant and a female.
Bell hooks also makes excellent observations about African-American literature that for some reason (and despite international recognition of people like Toni Morrison) the publishing world refuses to see as being of literary value. At the same time, it has no problems accepting serious and literary challenging works from writers from Africa or the Caribbean. It seems that there is only one style available for African-American authors that they should fit into if they want to be published. I had never thought about this that way but I realise that for once bell hooks might be onto something. It is especially obvious when it comes to African-American female authors.
In her piece on confessional writing she insists that writers from white privileged backgrounds have less problems with that as they have always been taught that the freedom for artistic expression always comes first before the feelings of the family and friends that might be hurt. She says that the friends and family of white privileged authors understand that too. I think that's ridiculous. If you start to dish out dirt in public, recounting real life events, including people's real names all in the name of your artistic freedom, you have to be prepared that people will get hurt and they might cut you off, regardless of your background.
What's more, I believe that kind of writing has less to do with artistic expression and more to do with nursing grudges. A truly skilled writer would take all those experiences and feelings and translate them into fictional work so that he or she can have a cake and eat it, too. And if they need to write the story as it is for therapeutical reasons, there really isn't any need to publish it.
When some authors say that they will only write something autobigraphical like that after their parents' death (which I think is a reasonable way of going about it), bell hooks counters:
"Their confidence that they will outlive their parents suprises me. In part, the awareness that so many black women writers die young has compelled me to write openly and honestly about aspects of my life I would have once believed would be best shared in old age.”
Well, that’s just... I don’t know what to say to that.
I would just like to close this review by another quote from the book:
“Women should not be afraid to critique a lack of standards in writing by women.” So there. I wasn’t.
(Looking at the lenght of this review I am probably another woman who writes 'too much'.)
p. 13 "For the vast majority of my life I have longed to write"
p. 14 "Once I began to write books regularly, sometimes publishing two at the same time, more and more comments were made to me about how much I was writing."
p. 15 "To overcome fears about writing, I began to write every day. My process was not to write a lot but to work in small increments, writing and rewriting. Of course I found early on that if I did this dilligently these small increments would ultimately become a book."
p. 16 "I know that this body of work emerged because I am again and again overwhelemd by ideas I want to put in writing. Since my interests are broad and wide-ranging, I am not surprised that there is an endless flow of ideas in my mind."
p. 18 "My zeal for writing has intensified over the years and the incredible affirming feedback from readers is one catalyst."
p. 18 "Sometimes I feel an urgent need to write ideas down on paper to make room for new ideas to arrive, keep my mind from becoming too crowded."
Look up 'graphomania'.
p. 19 "Since I have never tried to make a living as a writier, I have had the extreme good fortune to be ale to write only what I want to write when I want to write it."
p. 19 "When I choose to write an essay book that includes work that may have been published first in magazines, reviewers will often write about the work as though it is stale, nothing new. A book of mine might include ten new essays (which alone could be a book) and four or five pieces that were published elswhere and a reviewer might insist that there is no new work in the collection. Men can produce collections in which every piece has been published elsewhere and this will not even be mentioned in reviews."
I think she is missing the point here. When the reviewers say her work is repetitive, it is NOT because it has already been published somewhere else!
p. 29 "Among my critics, individual black women tend to be the most vociferous in their insistence that I write 'too much'. Glibly, Jewelle Gomez began a critique of my thirteenth book by facetiously labeling me 'the Joyce Carol Oates of black feminist writing'. Wrongly, she suggested that the book was merely a recycling of already published work. In actuality, it was a collection of twenty-two essays in which six were reprinted. Had they not been included it would still have been a book-length manuscript."
Yes, you said.
p. 29 "Often the suggestion that I am writing 'too much' comes from black women who have either written very little or not as much as they want to write.
Oh, that's what it is. They are just jealous of your logorrhoea.
p. 30 "Fortunately I have never to had to write to make a living. As a consequence I have always only written on subjects that intrigue and fascinate me."
I see. Wait, didn't you say that about 10 pages ago. Am I having a deja vu ?
p. 30 "No black woman writer in this culture can write 'too much'. Indeed, no woman writer can write 'too much'. Considering the centuring of silence, the genres of writing that have been virtually the sole terrain of men, more contributions by women writers should be both encouraged and welcomed."
Please, let no one encourage bell hooks to write even more, please.
p. 31 "When I publish collections of essays where pieces are included that have been published elsewhere, reviewers will sometimes suggest that there is nothing new in these works. Yet collections by women who write much less, whose articles may have all been published elsewhere do not get dismissed as mere recycling. And men, no one mentions the absense of 'fresh' work in their collections. "
Now I am absolutely certain I have heard this before. Two times. And we are only on page 31!
p. 33 "Instead, women writers and all our readers must talk back to all attempts to mock and belittle our commitment to words, to writing."
I suppose I will be getting in trouble for writing this review.
p. 34 "No woman is writing too much. Women need to write more."
Ok.. Now, that you've repeated it 15 times I think I get it.
p. 35. "Writing is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic."
Yes. So I've noticed.
As you can see, by the page 35, I was really annoyed and ready to scream. Bell hooks obviously refused any criticism of her work and put it down to sexism, racism or simple jealousy. She kept insisting that there was some white supremacist conspiracy created to belittle her work.
And while I believe the publishing world (like any world) is still very racist and sexist, she wasn't doing the cause any favours by sounding like a total lunatic.
And you know what? It's all a shame, because she makes quite a few valid and important points amongst that verbal diarrhoea and 'anti-feminist backlash' this and 'anti-feminist backlash' that.
I disagreed with her views on confessional literature and how supposedly male confessional literature is automatically given more literary value than female confessional literature that is just sent straight down to Oprah. I think male confessional literature that is sensational in character is dismissed as much as its female counterpart.
I also didn't care much for the essay on her spiritual growth and how it inspired her writing. That might be my fault though. I suppose I am not very spiritual and have never experienced spirits writing through me or any sort of muse. I just sit down and write and it is hard work. I actually refuse any notion of a muse and divine inspiration because I think this is one of the main reasons Polish literature is not very good.
My favourite essays were the ones about labels, and class and politics of writing and black women writing. In the essay called 'Writing without labels' she says:
"Writers from marginalized groups are usually faced with two options: overidentification with an identity or disidentification". It is extremely hard to find the right balance and I keep questioning myself who I want to be as a writer. While being a 'Polish immigrant' and a 'female' writer could very well be my selling point when approaching publishers I would rather not have this label stuck to me forever. I just want to be a writer who happens to be a Polish immigrant and a female.
Bell hooks also makes excellent observations about African-American literature that for some reason (and despite international recognition of people like Toni Morrison) the publishing world refuses to see as being of literary value. At the same time, it has no problems accepting serious and literary challenging works from writers from Africa or the Caribbean. It seems that there is only one style available for African-American authors that they should fit into if they want to be published. I had never thought about this that way but I realise that for once bell hooks might be onto something. It is especially obvious when it comes to African-American female authors.
In her piece on confessional writing she insists that writers from white privileged backgrounds have less problems with that as they have always been taught that the freedom for artistic expression always comes first before the feelings of the family and friends that might be hurt. She says that the friends and family of white privileged authors understand that too. I think that's ridiculous. If you start to dish out dirt in public, recounting real life events, including people's real names all in the name of your artistic freedom, you have to be prepared that people will get hurt and they might cut you off, regardless of your background.
What's more, I believe that kind of writing has less to do with artistic expression and more to do with nursing grudges. A truly skilled writer would take all those experiences and feelings and translate them into fictional work so that he or she can have a cake and eat it, too. And if they need to write the story as it is for therapeutical reasons, there really isn't any need to publish it.
When some authors say that they will only write something autobigraphical like that after their parents' death (which I think is a reasonable way of going about it), bell hooks counters:
"Their confidence that they will outlive their parents suprises me. In part, the awareness that so many black women writers die young has compelled me to write openly and honestly about aspects of my life I would have once believed would be best shared in old age.”
Well, that’s just... I don’t know what to say to that.
I would just like to close this review by another quote from the book:
“Women should not be afraid to critique a lack of standards in writing by women.” So there. I wasn’t.
(Looking at the lenght of this review I am probably another woman who writes 'too much'.)
February 26, 2024
I have read about Bell Hooks, and pieces by her here and there over the years, and was happy to delve into this collection of essays. Her themes revolve around the importance of writing, the importance of women writing, and the importance of Black women writing. There is much repetition, but this is for a reason.
“As a professor I sit in classrooms year after year talking with young women who are uncertain about their voices, who are still grappling with whether they can become ‘authors.’ Many of these young women are afraid to speak, let alone to write. When I witness their fear, their silences, I know no woman has written enough.”
A good portion of these essays focused on her own life and autobiography. Much of her writing was memoir, and this too is for a reason.
“When I first began writing feminist theory I did not include personal confession. I began to use confessional anecdotes as a strategy to engage diverse readers.”
Since I have had the advantage of being represented in much of the fiction I’ve read, these autobiographical details were not aimed at me, so it’s okay that I didn’t appreciate them as much. Her insight into other writers is what I found most interesting.
I particularly enjoyed reading about her meeting with Ann Petry and her husband George, her surprise at Petry’s willingness to speak to her class after many years out of the public eye, and the impact that conversation had on her students. Her analysis of Petry’s The Street was fascinating, as was her observation on teaching it: “I see students awakening to the realization of the way systems of domination can work to exploit and oppress.”
In addition to Ann Petry, she included essays that analyzed the work of Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, and Toni Cade Bambara.
I loved this about Morrison: “… Morrison’s writing is like that. She is able to take the simplest combination of words and put them together in a way that astounds, that awes as readers confront a depth and complexity beyond anything they can express in language.”
Throughout these essays, she refers to Emily Dickinson as her initial inspiration, “the angel of my solitary spirit,” and she has some fascinating thoughts on her idol. “Her poems are masks, together creating a collective drama where the self remains in the shadows, dark and undiscovered.”
I’m left mulling over what Hooks explores here, how, like Emily, an author needs to remain “in the shadows” to create, but also feel free to come out of the shadows with their ideas. A captivating conundrum.
“As a professor I sit in classrooms year after year talking with young women who are uncertain about their voices, who are still grappling with whether they can become ‘authors.’ Many of these young women are afraid to speak, let alone to write. When I witness their fear, their silences, I know no woman has written enough.”
A good portion of these essays focused on her own life and autobiography. Much of her writing was memoir, and this too is for a reason.
“When I first began writing feminist theory I did not include personal confession. I began to use confessional anecdotes as a strategy to engage diverse readers.”
Since I have had the advantage of being represented in much of the fiction I’ve read, these autobiographical details were not aimed at me, so it’s okay that I didn’t appreciate them as much. Her insight into other writers is what I found most interesting.
I particularly enjoyed reading about her meeting with Ann Petry and her husband George, her surprise at Petry’s willingness to speak to her class after many years out of the public eye, and the impact that conversation had on her students. Her analysis of Petry’s The Street was fascinating, as was her observation on teaching it: “I see students awakening to the realization of the way systems of domination can work to exploit and oppress.”
In addition to Ann Petry, she included essays that analyzed the work of Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, and Toni Cade Bambara.
I loved this about Morrison: “… Morrison’s writing is like that. She is able to take the simplest combination of words and put them together in a way that astounds, that awes as readers confront a depth and complexity beyond anything they can express in language.”
Throughout these essays, she refers to Emily Dickinson as her initial inspiration, “the angel of my solitary spirit,” and she has some fascinating thoughts on her idol. “Her poems are masks, together creating a collective drama where the self remains in the shadows, dark and undiscovered.”
I’m left mulling over what Hooks explores here, how, like Emily, an author needs to remain “in the shadows” to create, but also feel free to come out of the shadows with their ideas. A captivating conundrum.
January 26, 2012
Totally should not have been the first hooks I read. It's a little repetitious, and there are some essays I utterly failed to connect with in any way (the spirituality ones, especially), and I wanted to throw the book across the room when she dismisses popular/mainstream writing and writers as inattentive to and uninterested in craft, but that is a pet peeve of mine.
I'd like to know what hooks thinks of Octavia Butler -- a black female writer who writes explicitly and gorgeously about gender, race, and class, but does so in genre.
Her point about how black female writers historically have often died young, and therefore cannot afford the niceties of waiting to write the family memoir until their parents are dead, though, that struck me. A lot.
I'd like to know what hooks thinks of Octavia Butler -- a black female writer who writes explicitly and gorgeously about gender, race, and class, but does so in genre.
Her point about how black female writers historically have often died young, and therefore cannot afford the niceties of waiting to write the family memoir until their parents are dead, though, that struck me. A lot.
October 26, 2012
I haven't read bell hooks since college and felt that I really needed a book to inspire me to start writing again and to give me tools to continue the flow of putting words to paper and authors to turn to for guidance. She gave me all of that and more. I would've liked a few more tricks 'what to do when you're uninspired, where to go to to find support. but the power in her writing was enough for me.
October 31, 2007
"words have weight--
you bear with me
the weight of my words
suffering whatever pain
this burden causes you
in silence--
i bow to you--"
dedication, Rosa, bell and Veodis Watkins
"There are writers who write for fame. And there are writers who write because we need to make sense of the world we live in; writing is a way to clarify, to interpret, to reinvent. We may want our work to be recognized, but that is not the reason we write. We do not write because we must; we always have choice. We write because language is the way we keep a hold on life. With words we experience our deepest understandings of what it means to be intimate. We communicate to connect, to know community. Even though writing is a solitary act, when I sit with words that I trust will be read by someone, I know that I can never be truly alone. There is always someone who waits for words, eager to embrace them and hold them close."
you bear with me
the weight of my words
suffering whatever pain
this burden causes you
in silence--
i bow to you--"
dedication, Rosa, bell and Veodis Watkins
"There are writers who write for fame. And there are writers who write because we need to make sense of the world we live in; writing is a way to clarify, to interpret, to reinvent. We may want our work to be recognized, but that is not the reason we write. We do not write because we must; we always have choice. We write because language is the way we keep a hold on life. With words we experience our deepest understandings of what it means to be intimate. We communicate to connect, to know community. Even though writing is a solitary act, when I sit with words that I trust will be read by someone, I know that I can never be truly alone. There is always someone who waits for words, eager to embrace them and hold them close."
Read
June 16, 2021I liked several essays in particular from this book, although I think it would benefit from being a little shorter, taking out the essays that talk about several writers' lives but didn't have very much discussion about writing itself.
August 10, 2009
Another bell hooks at exactly the right time...learning so much about becoming a writer...a real writer, not one for profit or recognition but expression.
November 28, 2017
I am a white, cis-gender heterosexual male. And an evangelical. Everything bell hooks writes is worth reading. This is a book on the process and craft of writing (and only kinda sorta cultural critique). Hooks opens up about her journey as a writer, the challenges of being a woman and a minority in a commoditized and white male hegemonic publishing industry. And beyond the challenges, the gift of finding your literary, poetic and political voice.
Some good stuff here too on the spirituality of writers and activists (hooks is a practicing Buddhist and a former fundamentalist, crypto-Christian mystic).
Some good stuff here too on the spirituality of writers and activists (hooks is a practicing Buddhist and a former fundamentalist, crypto-Christian mystic).
July 17, 2013
Like with all of hooks' books, I took my time with it but thought about it constantly. I really wanted to soak up what she was saying, contemplate how I can be active in many of the areas she writes about. Often I find that in some areas of womanhood I am still very naive! I took pause with several of her passages to let them sink in because many of them spoke SO strongly to me. While I am not a black woman writer, I am a woman and hope to one day be a writer. She offers interesting insight, wonderful critique, and brilliant advice for writers young and old, black/white/green/blue.
May 20, 2019
if you're a writer, an advocate for feminism, or a woman...this is such a needed read. lots of good, compelling thoughts. I love bell hooks' writing because she is straight forward and blunt and yet still somehow beautifully eloquent. she says what she needs to say without being obtuse or dramatic, but still manages to evoke a bright creative image in your mind. the best way I can describe it is that reading her books is kind of like listening to an inspirational speaker, or having a mentor give you advice. it's really glorious, and I have yet to read one of her books that I don't like.
March 28, 2011
People praise bel hooks for the accessibility of the language that she uses, and that's true--but this book is dense. As in, I am a fast reader but I have to put this down after each essay and do some chewing/journaling/reflecting before I'm ready for the next essay, and then I'm hungry for the next. But I've moved twice in the last year, and somewhere this book got shoved into a box that hasn't been unpacked. I hope it's the next one I open.
January 9, 2009
LOVE this book. Excellent references to the art of writing...
"Writing is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic. The root understanding of the word ecstasy- "to stand outside"- comes to me in those moments when I am immersed so deeply in the act of thinking and writing that everything else, even flesh, falls away."
"Writing is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic. The root understanding of the word ecstasy- "to stand outside"- comes to me in those moments when I am immersed so deeply in the act of thinking and writing that everything else, even flesh, falls away."
August 24, 2014
I recommend this book to ANY woman who wants to write. These essays inspire, provoke, and awaken the creative woman. Yes, there's some good ole feminism in it. But it's of the "I deserve the amount of pay for the amount of work I do. Don't cheapen me because I'm female" type. It doesn't matter which background you have, these essays are helpful to all women writers and artist.
November 25, 2011
Interesting and easy to read, although there is some redundancy. Most likely because it is a collection of lectures and essays that span twenty years. Loved the tributes to writers who influenced her, particularly the essay on Toni Cade Bambara.
March 22, 2010
I especially loved hooks' look at Zore Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God through the lens of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. Outstanding.
October 4, 2014
Like a more critically focused, autobiographical feminist "writing life". bell hooks transcends most description. I loved these essays and her feminism is that with which I most closely identify
February 5, 2025
remembered rapture: the writer at work by bell hooks is a behind the scenes inquiry into her writing history and the writers who have influenced and supported her work. It is sad to read that when she had already published many books, after she became connected to Alice Walker, when she got encouragement to work with the main book publishers, that her prior books were not recognized, even though they were being taught in many programs and she already had a name. bell hooks was famous before she moved to New York, but the publishing industry didn't have her on their radar and didn't expect her work would sell. When she published this book she already had fifteen books, most critical essay collections.
She explores about writing her memoir, Bone Black, how her writing increased in autobiographic material, how that affected her and her family. She wrote to her parents, "...I realize that I share information publicly that you would not share. My hope is that you will respect my right to tell my story as I see it even though you do not always agree with what is being told or the decision to speak about it publicly." Her parents didn't respond and their emotional distance increased. She did not believe she could wait till they died because she had no clue how long she would live. She refers to many women writers who died before they had a chance to become old: Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Pat Parker, Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara.
She studied with Tillie Olsen, in her class at Stanford first began to think about the dreams of her mother, and what she had sacrificed to raise seven children; and how it relates to feminism and black women's lives. She calls it a turning point, "Shortly after this class ended, I began to write my first book. By then, I fully understood the gift my working-class mother had given to me in choosing to share her dream [of becoming a writer]."
Near the end of the book are chapters on Zora Neale Hurston, Emily Dickinson, Ann Petry, Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, and Toni Cade Bambara. This book is filled with wisdom from a seasoned writer.
Quote:
"Given the power of censorship and antifeminist backlash we should all be insisting that women writers continue to resist silencing. We should uphold and celebrate the rights of women writers to explore our imaginations to the fullest."
She explores about writing her memoir, Bone Black, how her writing increased in autobiographic material, how that affected her and her family. She wrote to her parents, "...I realize that I share information publicly that you would not share. My hope is that you will respect my right to tell my story as I see it even though you do not always agree with what is being told or the decision to speak about it publicly." Her parents didn't respond and their emotional distance increased. She did not believe she could wait till they died because she had no clue how long she would live. She refers to many women writers who died before they had a chance to become old: Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Pat Parker, Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara.
She studied with Tillie Olsen, in her class at Stanford first began to think about the dreams of her mother, and what she had sacrificed to raise seven children; and how it relates to feminism and black women's lives. She calls it a turning point, "Shortly after this class ended, I began to write my first book. By then, I fully understood the gift my working-class mother had given to me in choosing to share her dream [of becoming a writer]."
Near the end of the book are chapters on Zora Neale Hurston, Emily Dickinson, Ann Petry, Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, and Toni Cade Bambara. This book is filled with wisdom from a seasoned writer.
Quote:
"Given the power of censorship and antifeminist backlash we should all be insisting that women writers continue to resist silencing. We should uphold and celebrate the rights of women writers to explore our imaginations to the fullest."
April 20, 2025
A collection of essays about writing - about writing generally, about finding your “muse” or divine inspiration, about women and how much less time to write they generally have than male writers, and about writing as a Black woman, “especially in the area of nonfiction work, grappling continually with the suspicions of a larger literary world that is still not confident we are serious thinkers and writers.”
hooks notes that especially for marginalised writers, “we have visions that must be protected and cherished, for we are still claiming our space in words - still seeking audiences that can take us and our work seriously, still waiting for a generation of publishers and critics to emerge who are not blinded by biases.” But the fact that there are writers from all marginalised writers - Black writers, women writers, disabled writers - demonstrates how foundational is the need for such people to find and record their voice - “While [our] suffering does not sanctify us, it does remind us that ours is a literary history where even the threat of death could not silence our passion for written words — our longing to read, to write, to know.”
She has a beautiful, spiritual lyricality in her experience of writing:
“As a writer, I seek that moment of ecstasy when I am dancing with words, moving in a circle of love so complete that like the mysterical dervish who dances to be one with the divine, I move toward the infinite.”
“In that moment of grace when the words come, when I surrender to their ecstatic power, there is no witness. Only I see, feel, and know how my mind and spirit are carried away. Only I know how the writing process alchemicallly alters me, leaving me transformed.”
hooks notes that especially for marginalised writers, “we have visions that must be protected and cherished, for we are still claiming our space in words - still seeking audiences that can take us and our work seriously, still waiting for a generation of publishers and critics to emerge who are not blinded by biases.” But the fact that there are writers from all marginalised writers - Black writers, women writers, disabled writers - demonstrates how foundational is the need for such people to find and record their voice - “While [our] suffering does not sanctify us, it does remind us that ours is a literary history where even the threat of death could not silence our passion for written words — our longing to read, to write, to know.”
She has a beautiful, spiritual lyricality in her experience of writing:
“As a writer, I seek that moment of ecstasy when I am dancing with words, moving in a circle of love so complete that like the mysterical dervish who dances to be one with the divine, I move toward the infinite.”
“In that moment of grace when the words come, when I surrender to their ecstatic power, there is no witness. Only I see, feel, and know how my mind and spirit are carried away. Only I know how the writing process alchemicallly alters me, leaving me transformed.”
January 1, 2021
bell hooks celebrates the written word and its African American women practitioners.
August 18, 2025
hooks speaks about how she became a writer and how she developed her craft. She mentioned many of her literary influences including Emily Dickinson, Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, Ann Petry, Toni Cade Bambara and other writers.
She addressed her struggles with balancing her intellectual life, her creative life and her career and the various obstacles she (and other black women) experienced in trying to get her books published.
She speaks about how her spiritual life & development influences and animates her work and calling as a writer. She talks extensively about issues of gender, race and class in books, the literary world and the publishing industry.
She goes into detail about the complexities of writing about her family in her various books, especially writing that might potray parents in a negative light. Her writing often caused much conflict between her and her mother.
hooks also talks about death and writing. She warns us against putting off writing what is in our hearts especially due fear of what others will think because a long life isn't guaranteed. She referenced how many skilled black female writers from her era died young and in their prime; notably Lorraine Hansberry who died at the age of 34.
She encourages black women to write more books including experimental fiction books and to not give up when they aren't getting the attention or publishing deals thay they would like. She strongly exhorts us not to sacrifice the integrity of our writing projects & calling to appeal to the mainstream culture.
So much has changed since the time she first wrote this book. Many more black women have been able to come out and publish books across different genres and subjects that have even become bestsellers since the 90s.
There were so many more gems I got from this book. I'm reminded about the immense impact an essay or book can have on another person. They can clear the path for the next generation of writers, thinkers, activists and social reformers. hooks said that if Toni Morrison hadn't written 'The Bluest Eye' it would have taken her longer to write her first memoir/book 20 years later.
Reading this reminded me why hooks is my favourite feminist writer and thinker. I want to read everything that she has written before I die. Her breadth and depth of knowledge and insight is dazzling. I have added many books by diverse authors she mentioned/quoted in the book to my tbr list. Reading this book was a delight and a reminder about the importance and power of writing and writers in our world.
April 30, 2015
I love reading books about the craft of writing. Getting insights from authors who have influenced millions seems like a good way to spend my time. Little did I know upon picking this book up that besides the act of writing, this book also focused heavily on feminist theory, and more specifically African-American feminist theory. So naturally it wasn't the page turner I hoped for. But it is good to read across the diverse spectrum of genres that exist in the world, even if they are highly academic sub-genres. Like any good book, the subject matter is secondary to the voice, the way it is told, and the way certain phrases stick with you like a memory. I now know more about the black woman's struggle in the literary world than I ever thought I would. Maybe this knowledge will come in useful at my next dinner party.
Read
January 14, 2010I usually love bell hooks but this one was a little slow. I LOVED the chapter where she talked about her own spiritual journey. I didn't finish the chapters of literary criticism at the end. They weren't my cup of tea.
August 7, 2016
I always feel energized by bell hooks' books and this was no exception. She's direct, clear and inspiring. However, there was much repetition throughout which got to be annoying, it seemed careless to not have edited that out.
Want to read
March 15, 2009Just picked this one up. I enjoy bell hooks' work and look forward to this one as well.
April 24, 2011
Sometimes this is the right book at the right time. hooks writes about writing as a practice and way of life.
May 31, 2023
"Letting my political and intellectual work be guided by an ethics of Love, I began to feel a harmony where there had been a sense of conflict..." (p.117)
Might as well declare myself a diehard fan of bell hooks' writing by this stage. Still working my way through each and every single one of her books with an unwavering pursuit of the critical social theory she presents and the thought-provoking nature of her works, I just can't seem to get enough.
As a run-on from "Wounds of Passion," this book "Remembered Rapture" continues to chart hooks' love affair with writing and her understandings of the differences in craft and practices of writing amongst both herself and her peers, most notably the writers she idolised and drew inspiration and drive from as a young girl, student, and grown woman.
Taking us on a beautiful journey through her adolescence and the writers she was exposed to back then through to her early years at graduate school, and the ways these contributed to the development of her own craft, approach to writing and understanding of what the practice meant to her. The chapter on spirituality and the ties to writing she believes it has was a memorable standout to me.
Beyond this, she looks particularly closely at the juxtaposition between fiction writing or as she calls it "imaginative writing" vs. that of a more academic standard, challenging the idea that one cannot become a master at both.
"I believe in the reality of the work. Period. I do not distinguish between creative and critical writing because all writing is creative...and all writing is critical, requiring the same shifting, selection, scrutiny, and judgment of the material at hand." (p.37)
I cannot speak more highly of the first instalment -- Wounds of Passion -- and will recommend it to every young budding writer, especially any individual (writer or not) with a deep seated appreciation for the way stories intersect and the clarity that words/ reflection/ writing all bring to our life experiences, feelings and psychological understandings of the self. The structure and tone are notably more mature in the second instalment, particularly as "Wounds of Passion" features a lot more of her personal life and feels more highly emotional, offering a more well rounded close look at her life, relationships, evolution of the self, etc whereas "Remembered Rapture" really hones in on the writers she had felt most notably influenced by, and additionally, charts the significant shifts in her outlooks, approaches to and overall relationship with writing.
My reasons for giving "Remembered Rapture" only 3 stars is the final few essays seemed to grow slightly repetitive and drag on. I feel hooks could've said more with less, and it would've had a more lasting effect on the reader to shorten the run-on sentences towards the last several chapters. Still felt highly inspired by her work, as always, and continue to relate to her love for writing!
"...let the world know that great writing emerges from diverse locations, that it is not the province of any one race or gender." (p.224)
Might as well declare myself a diehard fan of bell hooks' writing by this stage. Still working my way through each and every single one of her books with an unwavering pursuit of the critical social theory she presents and the thought-provoking nature of her works, I just can't seem to get enough.
As a run-on from "Wounds of Passion," this book "Remembered Rapture" continues to chart hooks' love affair with writing and her understandings of the differences in craft and practices of writing amongst both herself and her peers, most notably the writers she idolised and drew inspiration and drive from as a young girl, student, and grown woman.
Taking us on a beautiful journey through her adolescence and the writers she was exposed to back then through to her early years at graduate school, and the ways these contributed to the development of her own craft, approach to writing and understanding of what the practice meant to her. The chapter on spirituality and the ties to writing she believes it has was a memorable standout to me.
Beyond this, she looks particularly closely at the juxtaposition between fiction writing or as she calls it "imaginative writing" vs. that of a more academic standard, challenging the idea that one cannot become a master at both.
"I believe in the reality of the work. Period. I do not distinguish between creative and critical writing because all writing is creative...and all writing is critical, requiring the same shifting, selection, scrutiny, and judgment of the material at hand." (p.37)
I cannot speak more highly of the first instalment -- Wounds of Passion -- and will recommend it to every young budding writer, especially any individual (writer or not) with a deep seated appreciation for the way stories intersect and the clarity that words/ reflection/ writing all bring to our life experiences, feelings and psychological understandings of the self. The structure and tone are notably more mature in the second instalment, particularly as "Wounds of Passion" features a lot more of her personal life and feels more highly emotional, offering a more well rounded close look at her life, relationships, evolution of the self, etc whereas "Remembered Rapture" really hones in on the writers she had felt most notably influenced by, and additionally, charts the significant shifts in her outlooks, approaches to and overall relationship with writing.
My reasons for giving "Remembered Rapture" only 3 stars is the final few essays seemed to grow slightly repetitive and drag on. I feel hooks could've said more with less, and it would've had a more lasting effect on the reader to shorten the run-on sentences towards the last several chapters. Still felt highly inspired by her work, as always, and continue to relate to her love for writing!
"...let the world know that great writing emerges from diverse locations, that it is not the province of any one race or gender." (p.224)
December 17, 2024
bell’s writing is soft and tender yet incisive. i read most of her books, especially this one, in bites. i agree with other reviewers who say she is somewhat repetitive, but i don’t find that to be a bad thing — each time she comes back to an idea she digs a little deeper or pulls out some different thread.
i always love bell’s universality. she has a very particular ability to speak to her specific experience (including, of course, racist and gendered violence), without watering it down or pulling punches, while expanding her lens out to everyone else. i really appreciated her writing on emily dickinson — bell contextualizes her work within her time, and talks about the invisible Black labor that made her experience possible, yet still holds Dickinson’s writing dearly. this essay, like many others, exemplifies for me what criticism looks like when it comes from love and a desire to build on and do better as opposed to a motive of tearing down.
i also really appreciated bell’s encouragement to marginalized writers of all kinds. she says: we should have more writers point blank whose experiences are often neglected. it matters greatly that people strive for their craft, and they do — and bell knows they do. and for that reason, it matters less that every woman (or Black) writer be “a great writer” than that it exists. there will be more good literature as more marginalized people get published — full stop. because our literatures will not improve in craft if we don’t even get published enough to be reflexive on our or each other’s work.
thanks, bell 🌹
i always love bell’s universality. she has a very particular ability to speak to her specific experience (including, of course, racist and gendered violence), without watering it down or pulling punches, while expanding her lens out to everyone else. i really appreciated her writing on emily dickinson — bell contextualizes her work within her time, and talks about the invisible Black labor that made her experience possible, yet still holds Dickinson’s writing dearly. this essay, like many others, exemplifies for me what criticism looks like when it comes from love and a desire to build on and do better as opposed to a motive of tearing down.
i also really appreciated bell’s encouragement to marginalized writers of all kinds. she says: we should have more writers point blank whose experiences are often neglected. it matters greatly that people strive for their craft, and they do — and bell knows they do. and for that reason, it matters less that every woman (or Black) writer be “a great writer” than that it exists. there will be more good literature as more marginalized people get published — full stop. because our literatures will not improve in craft if we don’t even get published enough to be reflexive on our or each other’s work.
thanks, bell 🌹
May 31, 2019
Upon rereading this collection by bell hooks, I find that my original rating of 5 stars no longer holds up. While her subject matter of writing about her writing life and cultivating that amidst a girlhood that was not conducive to such aspirations still intrigues me, I find the delivery of that subject much less compelling than I had when I originally read this collection of essays some twenty years ago upon doing research for my graduate thesis. Going back to this work, I find that many of the essays are in fact repetitive in terms of the ideas they discuss and the imagery used. I still love bell hooks' memoirs themselves and much of her, but I do not find this particular collection to be nearly as moving and well written as I did when I was twenty-five. Upon rereading, I give the book 3 solid stars.
August 10, 2024
Classic gorgeous prose and thoughtful dissections of the artform of writing and its place in a capitalistic STEM nightmare, there are a ton of winners in this collection of essays. Some of the reviews of other black female authors' work feel a little distant from lack of context, but of course in celebrating the art of writing hooks absolutely has open game to gush about the writing that inspired her. Some of the points about unfair criticism start to feel repetitive, but overall there is so much to learn here about hooks's approach to writing and the value she sees in words' place amongst sociocultural revolution, in the scope of the inner mind and that of community.
I really enjoyed:
- dancing with words
- the writer's true home
- zora neale hurston: a subversive reading
...and I'm sure many others, because frankly, I couldn't stop reading such beautiful prose and lost track of which specific essay I was on.
I really enjoyed:
- dancing with words
- the writer's true home
- zora neale hurston: a subversive reading
...and I'm sure many others, because frankly, I couldn't stop reading such beautiful prose and lost track of which specific essay I was on.
June 5, 2022
Snapshots of Intimacy and Craft As Well As Tribute
Black women writing about writing may be my new favorite genre of essays. It’s not about sharing every experience, or agreeing with every tenet. Instead, what bell hooks gifts readers with are a handful of engaging conversations with a brilliant mind. Retrospective, with an interesting blend of radical acceptance of the systems that frame Black womens’ writing, and a hardline stance towards a never-defined “serious” literary practice that doesn’t feel radical or free at all, but instead recursive and gatekeeping.
Highly recommend for anyone who didn’t get to interact with hooks in the classroom, and who wants a workshop, master class, and mentor meeting in one volume.
Black women writing about writing may be my new favorite genre of essays. It’s not about sharing every experience, or agreeing with every tenet. Instead, what bell hooks gifts readers with are a handful of engaging conversations with a brilliant mind. Retrospective, with an interesting blend of radical acceptance of the systems that frame Black womens’ writing, and a hardline stance towards a never-defined “serious” literary practice that doesn’t feel radical or free at all, but instead recursive and gatekeeping.
Highly recommend for anyone who didn’t get to interact with hooks in the classroom, and who wants a workshop, master class, and mentor meeting in one volume.
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