If you want to tap into your most authentic source of creativity — if you hunger to express yourself, to free the stories that swirl within you — thenFruitflesh was writtenfor you. Structured around the growing cycle — seeds, roots, trunk, branches, leaves, buds, flowers, and fruit — this exquisite writing guide will encourage your self-awareness and confidence as a writer.

Drawing on the metaphor of the fruitfulness of women's bodies, author and poet Gayle Brandeis helps women gain access to their prolific power as the wellspring of great writing. "Give your fruitflesh the chance to express itself," urges Brandeis, "reclaim itself, honor and celebrate itself over and over again, both in your body and on the page. You are your own source of creative renewal."

Each section of this delightful guide begins and ends with a "Fruitflesh Meditation" — an exercise centered on a particular fruit that will inspire, challenge, and provoke you to bring your body into the act of writing, adding a winsome, satisfying dimension to the creative process. Enlightening, witty, groundbreaking, and including many practical lessons, this distinctive approach to writing will take you out of drudgery and into the true source of your creative power.

Gayle Brandeis is an award-winning author and poet whose work has appeared in Salon, HipMama, and numerous other places. She lives in Southern California with her husband and two children.