Hi! I’m a book nerd who feels increasingly uncomfortably the farther I get from a good book. There’s always a book in my bag, a stack of them beside my bed, and a library in my head. I grew up in the country without TV or many friends, and books are what cracked this wonderful world of ours wide open for me, for which I’ll be eternally grateful. Since books have helped me so much, I’m confident they could help you, too.
So let’s read, explore, and turn some pages. Together. For a start, you can browse a bunch of my recommendations at my shop, peruse my big bibliotherapy list, or skim my seasonal picks. You could also book a personal consultation to discuss books, delve into bibliotherapy, and get bespoke recommendations.
my background
I’m not a licensed clinical therapist, but I do have an MFA in creative writing, plus a Ph.D. in public health. That makes me familiar with literary techniques and principals of wellness, and helps me tie together different literary threads that might prove useful. I also do some of my own writing, mostly novels and essays:
short stories
- We Did Not Expect Four Legs, | Arkansas Review
- Ararat Tiny Houseboats | Conjunctions
- Katabasis | storySouth
- Jack This Car | Washington Square Review
- The Whale Did Not Seem to Be a Warning | Columbia Review
- Ornaments Tinkle in an Icicle Wind | Funicular Magazine
- Overmatch by Pizza | Brilliant Flash Fiction
- The Boys, The Black, The Flutter | Event
- When the Moon Couldn’t Cork a Barrel | The Fourth River
- It Is Possible to Give a Vulture Too Large a Task | Image
- The Intermezzo |Arkansas Review
- Justin | Harvard Review
- Swamp Tide | Arkansas Review
- A Handful of Women | The Michigan Quarterly Review
- Tireless on the Way of Cain | The Oleander Review
- Lewis and Clark, Bryce and Tony | Barcelona Review
essays
- Please, Pour Down Your Anger on Us | J Journal (forthcoming)
- The Ribs That March Forward Through the Skin | New Mexico Review
- The Paris of the West | The Account
- Teaching Punishment | The Oleander Review
poetry
- ‘Yesterday’ is the most covered song in the world | Sheepshead Review
- Traveling in slow pieces from the North | Red Rock Review
- A curved blue-veined space full of water and silence | Rappahannock Review
- Nostalgia is more of a problem than mourning | Little Patuxent Review
- A pinata of reproductive organs | Connecticut River Review
- You pile sweet jam; I’ll admit it even if doesn’t fix anything | After the Pause
- At least I have a brown arm | Inflectionist
- Agnostic Wandering, and Old Spice & Cordite | Blackbird
- We Both Like to Stick Our Heads In; Everything Pointed South; Put Your Will In Your Boots | Mojave River Review
- Reach Out <hard stop> | West Trade Review
- Something Like This Every Night, Sediments Literary-Arts Journal
- Watchtower | DIAGRAM
- The Honky-Tonk Blues Bar | Blackbird
- Bandita | Stirring
- Seedpods ‘Longside Flowers | Beloit Journal of Poetry
novels in progress
I am currently editing and seeking representation for three novels:
- “Swim the River, Girls” about the young women who survived Washington’s Green River Killer by banding together to demand better than Seattle was prepared to give them
- “The Belgrade Docent” about a volunteer docent steering through a recent move and disorienting relationship with her girlfriend by responding to the art and artifacts of Belgrade’s National Museum
- “The Clut,” about a woman who bucks start-up culture to found her own cult an in effort to explore companionship and a sense of power
essay collection
I write about music as well, specifically why music has the psychological and emotional effects it does on us, as well as how music helps us understand our culture and more. I blog about it over at The Blue Drums. I’m also pitching an essay collection on music called On Repeat.
health writing
Professionally, I’m a health and wellness content writer. I do health and medical copywriting, content development, academic writing, and policy papers, often on mental health, pain, gut health, and more. I blog about wellness at Vitamin B Sage, and you can find out more about my professional writing at www.cyanjames.com. I’ve worked for non-profits, start-ups, hospital systems, universities, and more, including the University of Washington, University of Michigan, Johnson & Johnson, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the United Nations.