charmingly sets out to do just this. Begin with the lengthy introduction first.
.
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Writing with the Seasons
52 creative prompts inspired by nature's rhythms, a book review
Saturday, 23 October 2026
Writing in a book. I'm not talking about scribbles and scrawls over the text itself, making it difficult to read. I know that as children we are told no, no, don't do that! Marginalia is different. That's what it is called when readers make notes, write comments, even doodle in the margins of the pages of a book they are reading. What about a book that actually wants you to write on its pages, providing blank space to encourage you to do so. Not a journal or a diary. One offering encouragement.
"Writing with the Seasons, 52 Creative prompts inspired by nature's rhythms"
charmingly sets out to do just this. Begin with the lengthy introduction first.
Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer is delighted if you are flexible in using this book. No rules, she notes, only invitations. Follow the calendar chronologically, that's fine. Open a random page and see where that takes you. It does not matter where or how you live - an apartment in the city or a farmhouse in the country. A few minutes, not even each day but as little as once a week, Writing with the Seasons suggests this practice can bring inspiration from connection to the natural world.
Each of the four season sections begin with a two page spread offering individual words
to provide possible options. Winter begins with light, solitude, and several more. Left hand pages
note a weekly theme, has your first of many blank write/draw/doodle here spaces. And prompts
to help you get started. On right hand pages - enter the date, look for signs and symbols, and again
provides space to write/draw/doodle. My suggestion - better to use a soft lead pencil, not a marker.
Every three pages there is another with a brief quote or a small poem. The last two lines of four for autumn
"The autumn is the evening clear
That comes before the winter's night."
. . . Frank Dempster Sherman
For this review I share my mindfulness here. If I had a pencil I'd open the book and write on its pages.
I looked outside. Last night was cold, a real frost. Elephant ears have discolored, limp, draggly leaves.
I need to cut them back, dig the tubers, let them sit in the garage to dry off before storing them away for the winter. It is not windy. Leaves from the trees are just letting loose and drifting, spiraling down to the ground. I hear a rat-a-tat-tat - a woodpecker hammering on a tree in search of insects for their meal. The season is turning, changing. But it is a change that has come before and will come again. It takes not very much of a search to find signs of the season and write them down.
Day and night are in balance on the autumn equinox. Reflect,
Gabrielle prompts us, on a sense of balance in one's own life.
A garden should have more than just visual beauty, one of the professors for a two week intensive seminar on Japanese garden art at the Kyoto University School of Art and Design told us. It should also appeal to our other senses of sound, scent, touch, and taste. What goes around, comes around. Writing with the Seasons has suggestions for weekly practice. Paired with embracing mindfulness, knowing leaves will fall, in a few sentences we are told "Experience autumn with all your senses, not only your eyes."
A charming book that offers what are likely to be fresh suggestions, helping the reader to develop insights into their appreciation of nature. Autumn comes, leaves fall. Winter follows. In turn the season of chilly days and long nights shifts around to Spring. Days continue to lengthen as nights reduce their hours. Around and around. After writing in this book you will appreciate more connections. Memorabilia. And memories.
Writing with the Seasons, 52 Creative prompts inspired by nature's rhythms
Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer
published by Smith Street Books, Australia and
distributed by in the United States by Rizzoli International Publications
Hardcover, trim size 5-7/8 x 8-1/4, $26.95
ISBN: 978-1-9235-0320-5
release date October 6, 2026
A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher
If you have any comments or questions, you can e-mail me: jgglatt@gmail.com
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