Insight with Sallie Tisdale

"Insight with Sallie Tisdale" will be at 11:30 a.m. in the Marie Antoinette Ballroom of the Davenport Hotel. You can also join her for the Davenport's Sunday Brunch at 10 a.m., just mention Get Lit! when you make your reservations with the hotel.

Sallie Tisdale says that her perfect day would include sunshine, a good book, being outdoors, and perhaps a good baseball game on the radio. Now that doesn't sound striking or controversial, right?

Tisdale is known best for being provocative, examining various issues around sex, gender, medicine and morality. She was a registered nurse and has written about her experiences working in various clinical settings. Despite the tense issues she often explores, she can engage almost any ready through her head-on approach to each topic. She knows better than to proselytize; instead, she demonstrates the complexity of each chosen topic and approaches it directly, without apology.

Her most recent book examines the female teachers of Buddhism she'd never heard about in her 25 years of practicing. Once she realized most of the Buddhist literature she was reading was by men and about men, she decided to explore how women have contributed to the Buddhist life, and the result was her seventh book, Women of the Way: Discovering 2,500 Years of Buddhist Wisdom.

Tisdale has taught at Reed College, Northwestern University, and New York University. One of the writing tips she shares with students is:

"Ignore the rules. Forget what they taught you in the writing program. Ignore the bestseller lists and whatever seems to be in fashion right now. Read the writers you admire, but not very much. Don't imitate; but if you're really stuck, open a book of poetry and pick a line at random, and do a free write from it. Then throw it away. Keep piles of notes, lines and titles, and anecdotes. You will find a place for a few of them someday. Accept a few hard truths: There is 95-percent chaff for the few kernels of wheat. Revision is continual. Most good writers don't get published very easily. Most bestsellers suck. It's not a meritocracy. Write for the sake of the words. Keep your day job."

Her books include The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Tales of the Modern Hospital (1986), Harvest Moon: Portrait of a Nursing Home (1987), Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate History of Sex (1994), and The Best Thing I Ever Tasted: The Secret of Food (2000). Her work also frequently appears in such periodicals as Conde Nast Traveler, the New York Times Magazine, and The Antioch Review.