Embodying the Book

Written By Sally-Shakti Willow

In this episode of Writing & Thriving, I speak with Jayne Johnson about her journey of bringing her transformational non-fiction book into the world. Jayne shares how a childhood promise to her grandmother at age five led to decades of knowing she needed to write a book, and how synchronicities—including a tarot card reading at a visioning workshop—finally brought her to begin this work.

Jayne describes the breakthrough of giving herself permission to simply write without worrying about structure or format. She scheduled daily writing sessions every morning at 8 am, where the words “poured and poured” out of her.

The heart of our conversation explores Jayne’s unique book vision: a hybrid work combining prose, poetry, and imagery that invites readers into embodied knowing. Her book, Edgewalker: Reclaim Your Resilience Through the Cycle of the Seasons, focuses on bringing readers back to their bodies and recognising channels of information beyond the rational mind—including intuition, somatic awareness, dreams, and encounters with the natural world. As Jayne says, “there are lots of other channels where we receive information” beyond intellectual understanding.

We discuss the physicality and materiality of books themselves, and how Jayne’s work embodies the very principles she’s teaching—bringing people back to embodied wisdom through the physical experience of engaging with her book.

Jayne is now in the next phase of her manuscript, inviting the wild into her work through walks and allowing whatever shows up to become part of the book.

Connect with Jayne:

Sally-Shakti Willow

Writing my PhD in Utopian Poetics showed me what it means to be a writer. I wrote four books of poetry and a 50,000 word thesis, and I started journaling as a way to ground and heal myself.

While I was studying, I also wrote and maintained the Contemporary Small Press website, writing regular reviews of new fiction and poetry published by small presses. I was on the judging panel for the 2018 Republic of Consciousness Prize for literary fiction from the small presses. So I was reading a lot of great writing too. And I co-developed and taught a series of workshops called WELLBEING WHILE WRITING for doctoral researchers at the University of Westminster.

WELLBEING WHILE WRITING used practical techniques from Creative Writing pedagogy to support PhD students of all disciplines with the work of WRITING their thesis. I also used my knowledge and experience of yoga and meditation to provide MOVING & BREATHING FOR WELLBEING workshops to graduate students at the University.

I’ve been teaching English since 2004 and I’ve been teaching Creative Writing at the University of Westminster since 2017.

https://www.writingthriving.com
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