A celebration of curiosity, compassion, and the surprising power of fear, based on the New York Times bestselling author and renowned professor’s 2015 commencement address at Syracuse University.
“Being smart and rich are lucky, but being curious & compassionate will save your ass.”
Every year there are one or two commencement speeches that strike a chord with audiences far greater than the student bodies for which they are intended. In 2015 Mary Karr’s speech to the graduating class of Syracuse University caught fire, hailed across the Internet as one of the most memorable in recent years, and lighting up the Twittersphere.
In Now Go Out There, Karr explains why having your heart broken is just as—if not more—important than falling in love; why getting what you want often scares you more than not getting it; how those experiences that appear to be the worst cannot be so easily categorized; and how to cope with the setbacks that inevitably befall all of us. “Don’t make the mistake of comparing your twisted up insides to other people’s blow-dried outsides,” she cautions. “Even the most privileged person in this stadium suffers the torments of the damned just going about the business of being human.”
An ideal—and beautifully designed—gift for a graduate or for anyone looking for some down-to-earth life advice, Now Go Out There is destined to become a classic.
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“Karr is a national treasure, that very rare phenomenon: a genius writer who is also a brilliant teacher of writing. Karr’s work always breaks my heart, in the best possible way, because of her trademark combination of heart, clarity, compression, and genuine love for, and curiosity about, the human project.”
— George Saunders, New York Times bestselling author, praise for the author
“Karr seems to have been born with the inability to write a dishonest—or boring—sentence.”
— Time, praise for the author“Karr could tell you what’s on her grocery list, and its humor would make you bust a gut, its unexpected insights would make you think, and her pitch-perfect command of our American vernacular might even take your breath away.”
— Los Angeles Times, praise for the author“Karr is the real thing. Her focus on the details of experience sometimes sets facts aside, but never forgets them.”
— Boston Globe, praise for the authorBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Mary Karr is an award-winning poet and the bestselling author of Lit, the sequel to her critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling memoirs The Liars’ Club and Cherry. A born raconteur, she brings to her lectures and talks the same wit, irreverence, joy, and sorrow found in her poetry and prose. A sought-after speaker, she has given distinguished talks at prestigious universities, libraries, and writers’ festivals, including Harvard, Oxford, Princeton, Brown, and Syracuse; the New York Public Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the Folger Library; the New Yorker Literary Festival, PEN/Faulkner, and the Festival of Faith and Writing. Karr welcomes conversation with her audience and she is known for her spirited, lively, and engaging Q&A sessions.