Multiple award-winner Roger Rosenblatt has received glowing critical acclaim for his exceptional literary works—from the hilarious novels Lapham Rising and Beet to his poignant, heartbreaking, ultimately inspiring memoir Making Toast. With Unless It Moves the Human Heart, the revered novelist, essayist, playwright, and respected writing teacher offers a guidebook for aspiring authors, a memoir, and an impassioned argument for the necessity of writing in our world. In the tradition of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, Rosenblatt’s Unless It Moves the Human Heart provides practical insights and advice on the craft, exquisitely presented by one of contemporary literature’s living treasures. FOR MAKING TOAST: Rosenblatt brings the reader to tears, but with prose that is as restrained as it is evocative….Innocence and beauty restored then, with this gem of a memoir, deceptively simple in its proportions, but in truth: sad, funny, brave and luminous -- see how it catches the light…Without self-pity or sanctimony, the author reminds us in this rare and generous book that there is no remedy for death. The way to live, he concludes, is “to value the passing time”; the best we can do is to pay attention and to love each other well. - Los Angeles Times Rosenblatt…sets a perfect tone and finds the right words to describe how his family is coming with their grief… It may seem odd to call a book about such a tragic event charming, but it is. There is indeed life-after death, and Rosenblatt proves that without a doubt - USA Today “[MAKING TOAST] is about coping with grief, caring for children and creating an ad hoc family for as long as this particular configuration is required, but mostly it’s a textbook on what constitutes perfect writing and how to be a class act.” - Carolynn See, The Washington Post “[An] exquisite, restrained little memoir filled with both hurt and humor.” - NPR's All Things Considered “Hauntingly lovely.” - Christian Science Monitor “Unless It Moves the Human Heart is right up there with Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones,” although less Zen, and Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird,” although less confessional... The book is filled with humor and practical advice…” - Washington Post “They sit at the seminar table… pens poised, on the chance that I might say something interesting.” Modest words, since Rosenblatt is an award-winning author. In this slender volume he reveals the characters and conversations that emerged during one semester of his “Writing Everything” class. There is much to love and ponder within these passionate pages.” - People “There is much to love and ponder within these passionate pages.” - People “With this slim volume, Rosenblatt (Making Toast) offers his take on the challenges and responsibilities facing would-be writers...The informal and succinct format makes [Unless It Moves the Human Heart] a fast read but not a simple one...This will appeal to readers interested in an artful take on the writing life, as well as to fans of Rosenblatt’s previous works.” - Library Journal “With this slim volume, Rosenblatt offers his take on the challenges and responsibilities facing would-be writers...The informal and succinct format makes [Unless It Moves the Human Heart] a fast read but not a simple one...an artful take on the writing life.” - Library Journal “Roger Rosenblatt is the teacher you always wished you had. Teaching “is inevitably an extension of personality,’’ and it is a happy circumstance that Rosenblatt’s personality is generous, kind, and compassionate…Adept and inventive, Rosenblatt encourages his students to write with moderation but think with grandiosity…Having skillfully addressed matters of style, he ends by eloquently approaching the spirit.” - Boston Globe “Roger Rosenblatt is the teacher you always wished you had... Adept and inventive, Rosenblatt encourages his students to write with moderation but think with grandiosity…Having skillfully addressed matters of style, he ends by eloquently approaching the spirit.” - Boston Globe “Unless It Moves the Human Heart is right up there with Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones,” although less Zen, and Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird,” although less confessional. It takes the form of a memoir that recreates classes in which Rosenblatt and his students tried to answer the question, Why write?... The book is filled with humor and practical advice…” - Washington Post A painfully beautiful memoir telling how grandparents are made over into parents, how people die out of order, how time goes backwards. Written with such restraint as to be both heartbreaking and instructive - EL Doctorow Written so forthrightly, but so delicately, that you feel you’re a part of this family. Rosenblatt’s writing turns a story that might be too uncomfortable to read, or too sentimental, in the direction of simple facts that required sophisticated, but instinctual, responses. How lucky some of us are to see clea