The World According to Coleen

"A sharp eye, a sharper tongue, a mordant wit and a penchant for telling it like it is...This grande dame of letters pulls no punches and warns us of her unceasing 'forthright and straightforward' approach on topics ranging from the beginning of the school year to the winter of her life."— San Antonio Express-News

“Coleen Grissom is a superb example of Dear Reader—the intelligent, passionate, fully engaged, gets-all-the-jokes audience. And she’s not exactly shy about sharing her enthusiasms, so she’s also a brave advocate. If there’s ever a last-stand fort of reading and writing to be defended, Coleen Grissom will be right up there on the battlements. Readers like her raise the bar for writers.”— Margaret Atwood, author of Moral Disorder and Other Stories

“Coleen Grissom is an indelible original, a straight-talkin’ virtuoso of radiant and glittering mind, as well as one of the funniest people alive. Anyone who gets to hear her speak will never forget it; the rest of the world will seem slightly duller by comparison. Or, you will feel recharged to discover more about the rest of the world—its literature and films and wisdom, its small towns, its animals—more about everything interesting in general. Reading Grissom’s passionate and brilliant speeches may be nearly as good as hearing them. At least we will have them in hand to return to whenever we need some high-voltage uplift.”— Naomi Shihab Nye, poet and author of The Turtle of Oman