Today is publication day for Cowboy & Wills, a memoir by my dear friend and student Monica Holloway (whose last book Driving With Dead People was a Newsweek pick of the week, optioned for a film etc.). Monica has the amazing talent to take the most difficult subjects and write about them with depth, candor, and flashes of wild humor. In this book she writes of her beloved son’s autism and the dog that lead him, step by step, into confidence and courage. This is a book that really does make you laugh out loud and also cry. You fall in love as you read it– especially with Wills, and also with the darling dog Cowboy, with JoAnn (the kind of aunt every kid would love to have), with Michael, with the teachers – and with Monica’s single minded passion for helping her son. Buy this book! It’s a wonderful read.

As for Monica being my student – I haven’t taught her a thing.  When she comes to class I just say “Keep writing, Monica.”