This is the introduction thread. Say hi, tell us where you’re from and what your writing is all about! In your introduction, answer these 4 questions: ➡️ What is your name (preferred pronouns as well, if you don't mind) ➡️ Why did you decide to join The Unexpected Shape Café? ➡️ What is your favorite book? ➡️ What are you interested in writing about? We can’t wait to meet you! If you'd like to share anything else as well, feel free! And welcome!

I am building something based on a little daydream—a writing retreat made just for us. A place to be gentle, not force activities, learn and write, and to make forever friends. To help make this little daydream happen, I’m sharing a survey to help try and figure out what you want. Because that, in the end, is the most important thing. For full transparency: I need at least 300 people to fill out this survey in order to move forward with planning this retreat. I don’t mean 300 people will end up coming—that would be impossible to manage!—but I do need 300 people’s thoughts in order to understand what your needs are when it comes to a writing retreat with me. Please, if you can, take a moment to take this survey here. The survey will be available for one week, meaning that I’ll need you to fill it out by March 23. But why not—why not take a few minutes and fill it out now? https://my.trovatrip.com/public/l/survey/esme-wang Thank you! ❤️ E

Hi folks, I'm happy to announce that my debut novel Dear Haider is scheduled for publication on June 1, 2024, by Baraka Books! https://www.barakabooks.com/catalogue/dear-haider/ It's one of those stories that came to me fully formed in a flash, as I was recovering from a severe mental health crisis. I was at the time in school, but had a break between undergrad and grad school, and wrote most of the first draft in that two month period. I wasn't fully satisfied with my draft however, and due to the demands of grad school, left the manuscript alone for almost 5 years. Then, a close friend of mine, who works as a medical copywriter, generously offered to edit my manuscript with me. It was the pandemic, so we went on Zoom every Sunday and worked on 2-3 chapters for a few hours at a time, for a period of four months. I will be forever indebted to her. Then, I think I did things quite backwards. Instead of trying agents and big publishers first, which I didn't have confidence to shoot for, I submitted to two small presses. One of them, whose founder happened to be my parents' friend and neighbour, immediately made an offer. And the rest is history. I'm happy to share more about my writing/publishing journey, so if you're interested, let me know and feel free to ask questions!

I'd love to hear what your wins this week have been! Anything at all: what's been really positive for you and has helped you keep going?

I thought it might be nice to have a daily pet thread. Here's Daphne, whom some of you might already know about. She's about 11 years old and an incredible sweetie (unless you're another dog or the USPS).