Find Your Way Back: How to Write Your Way Through Anything is a great pick for women-focused book clubs.
About the Book
Award-winning freelance journalist Javacia Harris Bowser is convinced that writing is a superpower. She sees her life as proof of it since writing has helped her navigate marriage, a crisis of faith, and body image issues. It also helped her to beat cancer.
As a Black woman from the South, Javacia has used the written word to explore issues of gender and race as well as religion.
Find Your Way Back is a collection of essays that demonstrate how Javacia has used writing to achieve some of her wildest dreams such as being a public speaker, having her own column, and being her own boss. The book also explores how writing, self-love, and faith helped her overcome her worst nightmare: a cancer diagnosis in 2020.
Javacia’s goal is to show readers how writing can transform their lives as well. The book includes prompts throughout to help readers start their own writing journey.
This book is for the woman who has wanted to write since she was a girl but struggles to find the time or the courage to put her words on paper. Find Your Way Back shows that instead of putting writing on the back burner when life gets turned upside down, we should turn to it to help life make sense again.
Book Bundles Available
Book clubs can purchase five or more signed copies of Find Your Way Back at a discounted price of $15 each. Email Javacia at javacia@seejanewritebham.com to learn more.
Live Author Q&A
Javacia is available for live author Q&A sessions with virtual women’s book clubs as well as in-person talks with clubs based in the Birmingham area. Topics she can discuss include: personal narrative writing, breast cancer survivorship, the business of writing and the power of journaling. Email javacia@seejanewritebham.com to book Javacia for your next book club meeting.
Book Club Discussion Guide
Even though Javacia declares in the book’s introduction that “this isn’t really a book about breast cancer,” she does weaver her cancer diagnosis and treatment throughout the essay collection. What things did you learn about breast cancer from these stories?
In the essay, “Chocolate Girl,” Javacia states that she thought colorism had “gone out of style with Gen Z.” What have you witnessed about colorism across generations?
Several of the essays in the book explore feminism. How do you define feminism? Do you consider yourself a feminist? Did the essays challenge your thoughts on feminism and if so how?
In the book, Javacia writes that she once struggled to see how being a feminist could co-exist with her love for the South. Are there any parts of yourself that seem to conflict in this way? Javacia used writing to reconcile these different parts of herself. How have you reconciled your own internal conflicts?
Javacia has said that her favorite essays in the collection are “My Mother’s Daughter” and “Daughters of Eve.” What did these essays reveal about Javacia’s relationship with her mother? Did reading these pieces spark any revelations about your relationship with your mother?
In the book, Javacia explores how journaling helped her deal with a crisis of faith as well as the emotional impact of cancer. Do you journal or do you plan to start? If so, is there anything you learned from the book that you plan to apply to your own journaling practice?
Which pieces in the book resonated with you most and why?