Feels Like Trouble: Provocations on Writing, Teaching & Power
forthcoming October 20, 2026, from the University of New Orleans Press!
Early Praise for Feels Like Trouble
“Feels Like Trouble is a riveting indictment, shocking in its revelations of the pressure to conform to what the culture identifies as ‘good writing.’”
—Vivian Gornick, author of The Situation and the Story and Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader
“Feels Like Trouble has forever changed the way I read, write, teach, assess, and how I think about institutions—what I want from them, how they bestow value, and the ways power dynamics shape feedback, legitimacy, and our whole concept of worth. It’s rare to encounter a book so radical and transgressive that it doesn’t simply expose what lies behind the curtain, but offers an entirely new way of existing within it. But just as it dismantles a problematic framework, it offers a salve for undoing that harm. Reading this book feels like learning to walk again.”
—Zaina Arafat, author of Our Arab and You Exist Too Much
“Beautifully written and brilliantly inventive in its blending of craft criticism and personal essay, this book brims with warmth, wit, and generosity. Helen Betya Rubinstein draws on her experiences as a two-time MFA student, copyeditor, university professor, and writing coach to examine how institutions like workshops and classrooms—and writers themselves, regardless of genre—can better center and empower their own narrative values and aesthetics. As practical as it is wise and probing, Feels Like Trouble is a revelation for writers across genres and disciplines.”
—Alexia Arthurs, author of How to Love a Jamaican
“Feels Like Trouble is as brilliant as it is humane, and a joy to read. This is the story of an artist’s education and miseducation, a story of the burnout and harm often done in the world of creative writing—and Rubinstein re-teaching herself, and the writers she coaches, how to trust themselves in the process of writing again. This book shifted how I responded to student art immediately, and for the better. Required reading for writers and teachers, Feels Like Trouble will be a dear companion for all creators.”—CJ Hauser, author of The Crane Wife
Eat Like Helen, or: How to Cook Dinner While You’re in the Shower, Using Only a Pan and One Utensil
walkaway cooking manifesto