Down Deep Books is an innovative non-fiction imprint, and a bridge between the press and Jan’s blogs on the writing life and our courses, both through Cinnamon and Jan’s Becoming a Different Story site.
The imprint aims to help writers explore and develop their writing processes and writing lives, not so much the mechanics of writing (there are tons of good books out there on this) but the deep stuff — from why we write to how we build a life around writing, from the values a writing life might entail to the radical practices of writers exploring fluid identities or working in innovative ways.
Down Deep Books’ publications are here
The core values of Down Deep Books are
- Radical generosity
- Deep attention
- Transformative creativity
Radical generosity to ourselves, our writing, and all that we are connected to, involves slowing down enough to dive into the sediment of ourselves, to emerge as writers of skill and imagination.
Deep attention opens us to flow and crafting. Deep attention makes us listen within—to our vision and passions, and without—to how we can reach out to the world.
Transformative creativity changes the stories we write and stories we want to live by. Transformative creativity enhances our quests to live good and meaningful lives.
The first book from Down Deep Books was Writing Down Deep; an Alchemy of the Writing Life. The book launched in Cinnamon Press’s 15th anniversary year of 2020 in a beautiful square hardback and large paperback formats.
This is a blog about writing the book.
And you can find more information, including an excerpt from the launch in Greenwich in February 2019 (Cinnamon Press’s last live launch before lockdowns began) below:
Rowan B Fortune’s book on writing utopias, Writing Nowhere, is also in this series, currently in eBook format, and we have a big, juicy book on blog writing coming in 2022 from writer and educator, Mark Charlton, so watch this space.
And Down Deep Books will also be publishing the exciting new journal Kith Review, a magazine in hard copy and eBook format creating a thoughtful space for nurturing connection.
Kith Review will feature:
- stories, poetry, art and essays that change the stories we live by — contemplative, radical, nurturing and challenging.
- writing that is imaginative, inventive and questioning.
- writers who are exploring what it means to live in this moment, always asking: ‘Does it enhance connection?’
Find out more about Kith Review and about how to submit the the magazine