Welcome to the May 2018 edition of Blue Heron Speaks! We are absolutely delighted and honored to share the work of our featured author this month, Diana Raab. Diana is a poet, memoirist, blogger, speaker, and award-winning author of nine books. Her latest book is Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Program for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life. This month is a slight departure from featuring a series of poems by an author. When I read Diana’s latest essay, “My Calling, Your Calling, Our Calling,” I knew that our Blue Heron Review readers and contributors would greatly benefit from soaking up the wisdom and insight of this piece. Diana shares her own journey with us in order to shed light on how writing can truly be a healing and transformative art form. In this thoughtful and powerful essay, Diana skillfully guides us to seek out our passions and our highest callings.

Please visit our Blue Heron Speaks Featured Author page to read Diana’s essay, “My Calling, Your Calling, Our Calling,” and to learn more about her books and the wonderful, soulful work she does with writers.

(Author photo by Melissa Musgrove)

Diana Raab, MFA, PhD, is a poet, memoirist, blogger, speaker, and award-winning author of nine books. Her work has been published and anthologized in more than 500 publications. She blogs for Psychology Today, Thrive Global, and Elephant Journal. She is the editor of two anthologies: Writers and Their Notebooks and Writers on the Edge; two memoirs: Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal and Healing with Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey, as well as four poetry collections. Her latest book is Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Program for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life. Find out more about this author at: www.dianaraab.com